UMD’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” Entertains as a Silly Comedy and a Barbed Satire
At Marshall Performing Arts Center - Now-Oct 19.
UMD opened its theatrical season on Friday night with the Oscar Wilde Victorian classic “The Importance of Being Earnest” that Wilde described as a “trivial comedy for serious people.” The audience connected with both the show’s trivialities in plot and its more serious satirical themes.
A visual feast, the show’s designers, (a mix of theater department staff and students), recreated the prim and proper Victorian world to a “tea.” Scenic designer Curtis Phillips and assistant designers Sheridan Cornett and Emma Wylie had the challenging task of bringing three different settings to life.
From a frou frou parlor with its fussy furniture and gilt wall paper, to a lovely Victorian garden with its explosion of flowers, and back to an interior of a staid library filled with knick knacks and volumes, each setting brought the audience back to the waning years of the Victorian period.
Scene changes were accomplished with costumed servants helping to establish the “upstairs/downstairs” aspect of the story. The change between acts two and three was beautifully choreographed, eliminating the need for a second intermission.
Costume designers Jennika Bunney and assistant Morgan Ryals did a magnificent job with their exquisite period costumes, all helping to establish character and bring even more color and life to the stage.
“Earnest’s” frivolous plot of mistaken identities and preposterous coincidences is the Victorian equivalent of a romantic comedy. It is, however, decidedly more sophisticated, filled with Wilde’s witty epigrams and bon mots, all intended to slam the hypocrisies of the snobbish society he satirizes.
Two young dandies, John Worthing (Luke Hiland) and Algernon Moncrieff (Luke Pfluger), live their idle lives devouring cucumber sandwiches and muffins and endlessly discussing their vacuous plans to do as little as possible.
Hiland and Pfluger struggle a bit in the first act with their accents, their diction, and their pacing but as the wildness of the improbable story develops, they find their footing and their comic timing, and are more playful with their characters.
The show kicks into gear with the arrival of the show’s three delightfully comic-leading women. Gwendolen Fairfax (Abby Aune) and Cecily Cardew (Maggie Clark) are the “love” interests of Worthy and Moncrieff. Aune and Clark are deliciously funny with their feigned sisterhood and later outright hostility towards each other.
Both actresses clearly display that their Victorian doll house lives are empty, filled with little more than pretty clothes, tea cake, and diary writing about nothing.
At the satirical heart of the show is the indomitable Lady Bracknell (Elsa Persson), the equivalent in “Downton Abbey” to the Dowager Countess Lucy Grantham. Persson skillfully makes every line a decided pronouncement of Oscar Wilde’s most pointed criticisms of Victorian life.
Persson is an undeniable presence as Bracknell, with her ramrod straight posture, stiff, dark satin dresses, and hilarious variations of pitch and tone. Her classic lines such as “Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that,” were a hit with an appreciative opening night audience.
Because of the illness of an actress, the part of the governess Miss Prism was played by understudy Kay Boster whose projection was so low that she was often difficult to hear. Prism has some of the funniest lines and important plot points in the denouement some of which were unfortunately lost.
Director Rebecca Katz Harwood chose to let Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece speak for itself and not to take major liberties with it as some modern day interpretations of the play do.
Katz Harwood’s straightforward approach allows her cast to immerse themselves completely into the Victorian milieu and have Wilde’s words be the heart and soul of her production.
For those who have never read or seen the show, UMD’s production provides a wonderful introduction to Oscar Wilde, the infamous playwright who lived a life himself that broke all societal norms, leading to this play being closed and leaving Wilde broken, ill, and imprisoned.
His masterpiece shows that not so far beneath the surface, hypocrisies and close-mindedness abound, some of which modern society is still sadly clinging. This as a central theme in “Earnest” is also epitomized in his quote from “The Picture of Dorian Grey.”
“And what sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.”
UMD Theatre Presents
The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde
Directed by Rebecca Katz Harwood
Oct 11, 12 | 7:30 pm
Oct 13 | 2:00 pm
Oct 16, 17, 18| 7:30 PM
Oct 19, 2024 | 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM
Marshall Performing Arts Center - Mainstage Theatre
Reserved seating at tickets.umn.edu or 218-726-8561
*UMD Student ticket options: $10 advance tickets (60% discount on regular ticket prices) OR FREE rush tickets the night of the performance with a valid UMD student ID. UMD students are encouraged to arrive for rush 30 minutes before curtain. Subject to availability. Online ticket sales end 90 minutes prior to each performance. After that time, call or stop by the box office for ticket availability and information.
For a profile of Elsa Persson, Lady Bracknell in this production, go to destinationduluth.org
Next Up for UMD Theatre and Dance
“Dance Works ‘24” November 22-24, 2024
Marshall Performing Arts Center - Mainstage Theatre
Reserved seating
For tickets, call the box office at 218-725-8561 of go to tickets.umn.edu
Prepare to be swept away by the dynamic energy and diverse performances of UMD Theatre's DanceWorks '24, gracing the stage this November. Embracing the diversity of choreographic voices, UMD dance artists unite to create a mesmerizing showcase of creativity and connection. Join us at the Marshall Performing Arts Center for an unforgettable celebration of dance and unity.
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About Sheryl Jensen - Arts & Entertainment Editor
A retired educator with the Duluth Public Schools, Sheryl Jensen has been a theater director of over 60 school and community productions. Her production of William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew at East High School won the National High School Theater award from the BRAVO television network.
Having written theater, music, dance, and opera reviews for the Duluth News Tribune for many years, she now is the Arts & Entertainment Editor for Destination Duluth.