The Importance of Being Earnest - Noel Coward Theatre - Review

February 1895 ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, the play that would go on to be known as Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece, premiered both representing and mocking late Victorian society with its story of double lives, society ideas and romance, sending Oscar Wilde to new higher levels of fame.

Just 3 months later in May 1895, Oscar Wilde was arrested for ‘Gross indecency for Homosexual acts’

Now, 130 years later, Max Webster’s staging of that masterpiece fresh from a festive period 2024 run at the National turns the Noel Coward pink with joy, laughter, and a rebellious sense of freedom in this queer celebration of an adaptation that I think that Wilde himself would have loved.

The show opens with Algernon (Olly Alexander/Elliot Pritchard) in a fantasy, donned in a fabulous hot pink ball gown, surrounded by cross dancing dancers. It sets the tone both for this interpretation of the care-free Algie and the production as a whole as ‘bunburying’ becomes not only the way to describe the double lives that allow Algie and Earnest/Jack (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) to travel without reason between town and country, but love is love itself as we witness the chaotic joy of colourful and stylish costumes, larger than life flowers, partner swapping and cheeky references.

As someone who saw this production at the Noel Coward theatre a number of times, I was lucky enough to see both Olly Alexander and Elliot Pritchard in the role of Algernon. I won’t give Algie the title of lead, as this production feels truly ensemble at times, but a great deal of the action does revolve around Algie, the cheeky, charismatic bachelor that revels in the delights of afternoon tea, dinners with friends and bunburying, using a fictional acquaintance with a habit for illness to run away to the country whenever he pleases. This Algernon has an air of a child who never heard the word no, he does what he wants, when he pleases, and in their own unique ways, Alexander and Pritchard make that charming. Everyone loves Algie here, and he knows it, in his eyes he can do no wrong, even if others may disagree.

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s Jack/Earnest fizzes with a nervous yet endearing energy, excited yet terrified by his ever-spiralling double life. He dreams of romance, but faces societal barriers and the ever present demands of Lady Bracknell, with his stresses materialising in outbursts of jumping and shouting that Stewart-Jarrett performs brilliantly.

Gwendolen (Kitty Hawthorne/Jasmine Kerr) and Cecily (Jessica Whitehurst) are given a freedom here. These two young ladies are not the Victorian ideal of perfection, prim, proper and rule following. Gwendolen’s strict mother Lady Bracknell (Stephen Fry) may state that when her daughter becomes engaged ‘she will be informed of the fact’, but this Gwen knows her own mind and acts assertive and sexually aware, flirting outrageously with Earnest/Jack. Miss Prism (Shobna Gulati) may try her hardest to get her charge Cecily to concentrate on her lessons, but this young lady’s mind is much more focused on her active imagination and the storytelling of her own diary.

Whilst laughter is rife throughout the production for various performances, I simply must praise the truly comedic talent that is Hayley Carmichael playing the roles of both Lane, Algie’s butler and Merriman, the head of household staff at Cecily’s country home. Her Lane’s indifference to the chaos and cheekiness of Algie’s behaviour, all costume changes and cucumber sandwiches is splendid, and her bumbling doddering Merriman earns rapturous applause, making the simple act of serving afternoon tea a comedy masterclass

Stephen Fry, Shobna Gulati and Hugh Dennis, a trio of star names invited into this technicolour Wildean world for the west end transfer, play Lady Bracknell, Miss Prism and Reverend Chasuble respectively. Fry has gravitas, delivering some of the play’s most iconic pieces of dialogue whilst expertly walking the line between seriousness and humour, earning laughter whilst maintaining Bracknell’s strict and harsh shell. Gulati and Dennis make a delightful pair as Prism and Chasuble, giddiness meeting awkwardness in their interactions as they try their hardest to make sense of the constant unravelling of lies and double lives happening around them.

This is a production that is crammed full of cheekiness, naughty references and laughter, wrapped up wonderfully in the bright colours that Victorian society loved whilst ripping up the rule book of that exact society. Bunburying gives the two young men freedom, something we see illustrated in the hitched-up skirts and legs in the air of the two girls, in a way representing the younger generation making the rules for themselves. Oscar Wilde was punished for pursuing love as he desired, but here that is celebrated in an explosion of colour and love itself with the show’s finale laden with feathers, flowers, sparkles and music in perhaps one of the most joyous moments that can currently be experienced on a West End stage.

In my opinion, this is ‘The Importance of being Earnest’ as Wilde dreamed it could have been within his lifetime, had society at the time allowed, and that should be celebrated. And whilst this production runs until mid-January, we can hope with all our might that it will be back again soon, as theatre and society needs this level of joy right now.