The Importance of Being Earnest
By Lillysam
It was fun, nicely done, but the guy who plays Algernon
almost stole the play by eating constantly. I don’t think he had as scene where
he didn’t end up putting food in his mouth!
Stage and costume restrained and all in tones of beige and blue, with a dash of
yellow and black for accent.
Lynn Redgrave was good, but not necessarily any better than others i have seen
do the play. I remember her kicking the train of her skirt out of the way
several times, perhaps not what an actress wants you to be remembering about
her performance.
James had the lead, in my opinion. Unfortunately, his name isn’t even shown on
the publicity. They feature the older British actors, and neglect the local
talent. In fact, I read that he was the only American actor in the show, and
that they were all helping him with his accent.
That accent was very good, at least to a California girl. He sounded a bit like
princes Charles or Philip in dialect.
Tall, thin, he looked amazing in a very well tailored mourning suit with the
very tall hat and the black sash hanging from back of the crown. cute,
charming, funny, it was a delight to watch him. He is so thin, not gaunt, but
just one of those lean guys.
The theater was a bit of a puzzle to me, because they had the seats in long
crescent rows without center aisles. it made getting in and out of seats
difficult, crawling across folks, and them crawling across you.
One slightly odd thing, when they were doing the bows after the end of the
play, all were smiling big except for James who looked rather displeased, or
concerned as if something had gone wrong and he was upset with himself. Just
something that I noticed.
We had a great time!