Performance
© Ridiculusmus 2008
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The Australian, Brisbane 2005
Ridiculous pair makes the most of Wilde travesty
Martin Buzacott, April 05, 2005
The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde.
Ridiculusmus. Brisbane Powerhouse,
April 2. Bookings: (07) 3358 8600. Tickets: $20-$30.
Ends April 9
THERE’S an old commedia dell’arte routine in which an actor, hiding behind a screen, pokes his head out from one side as one character and then, within an instant, transforms into someone else on the other side.
Similar techniques are employed by comedy duo Ridiculusmus in their hilarious travesty of Oscar Wilde’s most famous play.
Jon Haynes and David Woods offer a jaw-dropping portrayal of the entire cast of this great English comedy of manners.
Working for the first time with a classic text and external director (Jude Kelly), the Melbourne Comedy Festival favourites play so many roles that characters end up wooing themselves. The bewildering array of role changes necessitates Jo Currey’s lighting cues being mock-activated from the stage.
Laugh-a-minute stuff though it is, this gruelling night for the actors is also a convincing demonstration of theatrical craft, as director Kelly sustains the interest of what is essentially one device – the multiple role play – through more than two hours of theatre.
Initially the British director, who made her reputation at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, makes a virtue of necessity, with humour arising from the situation when one actor dashes offstage, leaving the other to cover for the uncomfortably long pause.
But then she speeds up the process, with each transformation becoming more ingenious than the last. Multiple costumes are worn simultaneously, screens and tables become changing rooms, wigs and hats are tossed around and, perhaps most outrageously of all, Lady Bracknell ends up being played by both actors.
The logistics of the mise en scene are breathtaking, and Woods’s and Haynes’s obviously intense concentration on the execution has the welcome side effect that, unlike so many local actors, they resist the urge to shout in the Powerhouse’s cavernous space, and they never have time to overplay.
Woods makes a particularly homely Cecily Cardew, and Haynes is scarcely less lovely as the uppity Gwendolen, while Lady Bracknell, with a chicken on her hat, is as frightful as ever, no matter who’s portraying her.
Ironically, the only potential distraction in an otherwise tightly focused technical tour de force is the genius of Wilde’s script. With some of the greatest lines in English theatre pouring forth, the sheer mechanical brilliance of the staging can occasionally pull the play where it doesn’t need, or really want, to go.
Purists may be horrified, but this co-commission with the Barbican continues Powerhouse director Andrew Ross’s recent knack for backing winners.
Related pages:
.. ABC, Brisbane 2005 .. The Age, Melbourne, 2002 (interview)