Sydney stage online
The Importance of Being Earnest | Ridiculusmus
Written by Claude Wake
Monday, 03 April 2006
The English theatre company Ridiculusmus’ twisting of The Importance of Being Earnest’s lesser known subtitle from ‘A Trivial Comedy for Serious People’ to ‘A Trivial Comedy Performed by Two Serious People’, is Wildean wordplay at its best and the method behind duo David Woods’ and Jon Haynes’ riotious madness. Performing nine roles between them, the two-handers are far from poker-faced, with tongue firmly in cheek, hair-piece askew and petticoats dishabille. Part comedy sketch, part puppet show and part physical theatre, Ridiculusmus concoct an uproarious mess of nonsense.
Now in its 111th year The Importance of Earnest is set in Victorian England, when Australia is seen not in this world or the next. A comedy of manners and comic misunderstandings, Jack Worthing (David Woods) and friend Algernon Moncrieff (Jon Haynes) assume identities both posing as Jack’s ficitious brother Ernest in order to woo their respective beloveds, Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew. Marking the first time Haynes and Wood have performed someone else’s work and their first time after thirteen years with a director, Jude Kelly – Wilde’s ricochet of aphorisms are a gift for Ridiculusmus’ brand of unsettling and highly energised theatre.
Self-confessed rule breakers, Wood and Haynes have indulged flights of fancy ripe for Little Britain, Tommy Cooper, Morecambe and Wise and Wilde enthusiasts alike. Zoe Atkinson’s pattern-profuse set design of a bazaar of Persian carpets and a clash of Victorian floral wallpaper prepares the audience for the on-stage mayhem of hasty costume and scene changes. A character may be a wig, a butler may pop up from nowhere and a ‘Bunburyist’ is the Smiths’ This Charming Man fan.
Further soundtrack blasts of Wagner’s ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ and Patrick Swayze’s ‘She Like The Wind’ from a seen modern cd-player epitomise this stripped down version of the play. Lady Bracknell dons a black chicken on her head while Reverend Canon Chasuble appears to have some difficulty with his surplice. The strong sexual element and the constant cross-dressing literally bring ‘out of the closet’ an ambiguity of which Wilde would applaud. Ridiculusmus praise “the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”
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