Cauldron

Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: A & E

Media Credit: A.D. Players Kevin Dean gets interrogated by Jeanette Clift George in a scene from "Earnest".

Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a play that centers on identity, both of the mistaken variety and the intentionally imposed. The A.D. Players, however, have their identity firmly locked in place. Dialogue-heavy, period comedies are what they do best. While not exactly groundbreaking theater, as there is very little that is visually interesting about the production, the A.D. Players execute Wilde's play with grace and skill.

The story centers around two friends, Algernon and Jack, who both take the name of Ernest to woo two different women, Cecily and Gwendolen, without divulging their real identities. Their courtships encounter a variety of comical snags, provided by the confusion between the two Ernests.

Jack takes the name of Ernest whenever he is in the city so that tales of his wild ways do not reach the ears of his pretty young ward, Cecily Cardew. All of the questionable things he does in the city were done by his fictitious brother, Ernest. Algernon decides it would be a good idea to pose as the wayward Ernest to win Cecily's heart.

Sparks fly when Gwendolen and Cecily stumble across each other at Jack's country estate and learn that they are both in love with men seemingly named Ernest Worthing. Everything turns out all right in the end, though, when both Ernests are brought to light and all questions of identity are finally settled.

Typical Wilde witticisms and plays on words populate the dialogue, such as "You look as though you were named Ernest-you look the most earnest person I ever saw!" Observations on women, men and marriage still ring true and tickle the funny bones of modern-day viewers.

Company veterans dominate "Earnest's" cast. Kevin and Jennifer Dean play one of the couples being forced apart by the machinations of matron Lady Bracknell, and in real life, are a husband and wife duo. Their offstage relationship adds a genuine sweetness to their acted one, and they play the roles with a tinge of mischief. Jeffery McMorough and Laurie Orozco play Algernon and Cecily with a similar ease.

Jeanette Clift George, in her role as the blustery Lady Bracknell, proves why she is still the first lady of the stage here in Houston. The fact that she has been acting for longer than some of her castmates have been alive accounts for the effortlessness with which she delivers her lines. Clift George's character delivers many of the laughs in "Earnest," such as her reaction to Jack's admission that he has no parents: "To lose one parent would be a misfortune, but to lose two seems like carelessness."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools