lay Produced THE

IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

By Oscar Wilde, Dolphins Amateur Dramatic

Society, Princes Rlsborough

THE PLAY As most people know, The Im­portance of Being Earnest' is a satire - a lighthearted witty comedy of the late Victorian era. It amused the people of the time and was a great success. Be­cause of the cleverness of Oscar Wilde's writing the audiences were not offended and laughed at themselves. Today we still laugh. The plot concerns 'gentleman' Jack Worthing, who is called Jack in the country but Earnest in the town. He wishes to marry Gwendolyn, who could only many someone by the name of 'Earnest'. So Jack decides he must become re-christened. However, when questioned by Lady Bracknell (Gwendolyn's mother) It is revealed that Jack was found as a baby at Victoria Station, in the famous 'HAND­BAG' , and adopted by a rich guardian who gave him the name of Worthing because he happened to have a ticket to that seaside resort In his pocket at the time! Lady Bracknell refuses to allow the wedding. Jack de­cides to go to the country where he has a beautiful young ward by the name of Cecily, who Is secretly In love with Jack's imaginary brother 'Earnest'. Jack has a good friend called Algernon (Lady BrackneU's nephew) who, whenever he wishes to escape the country, has invented a sickly friend called 'Bunbury' as an excuse. He finds out about the beautiful Cecily and decides to do some 'bunburying' and visits her, pos­ing as Jack's errant brother 'Earnest". They fall in love but Algernon must also be chris­tened because Cecily states that she, too, could only marry some-

Amateur Stage July 1990

one called 'Earnest'. Cecily has a governess callcd Miss Prism who is very fond of the local rector, Dr. Chasuble. Jack arrives in the country mourning the death of 'Ernest' and he tells Miss Prism and Dr Chasuble this news before ar­ranging to be christened. A jubilant Cecily appears on the scene with Algernon posing as the 'dead Earnest'. Jack Is furi­ous and asks Algernon to leave. Gwendolyn then arrives and

and the story is concluded hap­pily. CAST AND REHEARSALS We are a small company and the casting of this play was quite difficult. The Society does not have many men in their twenties - two men and women in that age group are reqUired. We man­aged, but had to up Jack's age from 29 to 35. Lady Bracknell is a very strong part (any actress would not hesitate in accepting It) and we made a good choice.

meets Cecily. Then follows the beautiful tea-party scene where they find out they are both en­gaged to 'Earnest', assuming him to be the same person. On the entrance of Jack and later Algernon, their differences are resolved and the men arrange to be christened by Dr Chasuble. At this pOint, Lady Bracknell appears on the scene having followed Gwendolyn, still refus­Ing Jack permiSSion to many her daughter. Algernon tells her he is engaged to Cecily and when Lady Bracknell Is told that Cecily has inherited £130,000, she agrees to the marriage! Jack states that he will not give his consent unless she will allow him to many Gwendolyn. Lady Bracknellis still adamant and is about to leave when Dr Chas­uble mentions Miss Prism. After questioning her, Jack's true identity Is determined - that of Lady Bracknell's nephew - lost by Miss Prism many years ear­lier. It transpires that his name really is EARNEST after all. This resolves all maniage difficulties

Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism are good character parts, in fact the latter was our props lady so she was very busyl Meniman, the butler in the garden scene, is a small but important part as he has to set the elaborate tea table. Our Stage Manager played Lane, the butler in Act One, and he had his hands fullil We cast the play at the end of June which allowed us twice weekly rehearsals for twelve weeks. This may seem a long time, but the rehearsals were extremely fragmented due to cast holidays. In fact, we did not have a full team until two weeks before the production date. SCENERY AND SET The play reqUires 3 sets - a morning room in London, a gar­den scene and a drawing room in the country. We decided to use the stage just as It was with two fiats either side. We also used two trellis panels which were hinged to the inside edge of the back flat. These were opened and used as trellis for the garden scene and closed and eovered

with different curtains for the 2 interior scenes, Lighting made all the difference. To get the effect of late Victorian rooms, furniture and effects were bor­rowed from many different sources. However, we could not get the truly cluttered look of the period and settled for only a suggestion. LIGHTING "1bree sets - all completely dif­ferent - and the transformation to be achieved by the Ughting de­partment". This was what the producer required but the 'light­ing department' was rather doubtfulll However, with the help of 16 CODA'S and 6 PATTERN 60'S all of which were used to light the flats directly, using Primary Pink and straw filters which were changed between Acts in order to save on hire costs and space - a very effective difference in set appearance was achieved. The general stage lighting was proVided by a mixturt: of RANK STRAND P23's, PI23's and MINIMS plus a numberofC.C,T. MINUETS. These all required careful placing as our stage, with Its 'letter box' proscenium arch, can cause severe problems with shadows on the set caused by the low lighting angles pos­sible. COSTUMES

This is such a well-known play that it would seem fairly straightforward to costume the characters. However, first we had to decide whether to set it in 1895, when It was written, or 1905 or later when the ladles' hats were more ostentatious and the contrast between town people - Lady Bracknell and Gwendolyn - and country-bred Cecily would be greater. We decided on a compromise and in fact Gwendolyn wore the elabo­rate hats and Lady B was more like Queen Mary. But we still wanted well-laced posture and carnage and a hint of bustle. Hiring period costumes turned out to be more difficult than expected, because what looked just the right material and col­our on the rail looked awful on

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the cast, and an apparcntly drab dress (if well-fitted) looked ex­ceedingly smart. So we concentrated a lot on the appropriate walk, the correct height of heel, lots of jewellery for Lady Bracknell, and the de­tails like toning glovcs, parasols, buttonholes for the men etc. Men are always more difficult to dress than women because one cannot just 'take in' a jacket, or easily shorten trousers. Mostly

strong for Gwendolyn, pastel for Cecily, demure but not passive for Miss Prism. Costume plays are always a challenge, some­times a headache! Hair styles matter as well, and here too the cast was not always co-opera­tive, but we achieved our objec­tive and transported the audi­ence back convincingly to the turn of the century. PROPERTIES As stated earlier, In the setting of

the jacket or coat sleeves were too short, or frock coats or cut­away coats the wrong length and this from the profile or back view can look ridiculous instead of man-about-town. We draped Jack In lots of black crepe - his hat anyway - and trimmed his handkerchief with black for the garden scene, and had him change into a sna7..zy blazer and matching scarf of the period. The overall effect was more or less what we wanted, and on several occasions members of the audience were heard to comment on 'the lovely frock' and 'doesn't she look splendid'. So the insistence on wearing the correct foundation garments paid off. As did time taken to acquire garments that were the right colours for the characters­

~.mateur Stage July 1990

the production the 'cluttered' look of the Victorian rooms was only suggested. This was a help as not quite so many 'props' I.e. dressing, were required. Never­theless to create the correct look was still not easy. Finding pe­riod china, silver tea services and trays, a real muffin dish and books required some searching. However some of our members could almost set up in the an­tique business between them! The food and drink consumed during the action seemed quite straightforward, but there were some pitfalls. The size and number of the sandwiches had to be worked out with the actors concerned and it was found that when real muffins were used (after much shopping around to find them) even though they

were buttered, but cold, they were too dry to be eaten qUickly. After several different trials, buttered scotch pancakes were found to be the best compro­mise. The garden scene presented its own headache as it was decided, tf possible, to use two or three real small trees as the main feature. We were fortunate tQ find some silk rose bushes from a local hostelry. These, with two bay trees and a weeping fig from a local garden designer special­ising In interior gardens, gave the right feel to the act without making the scene change over­long. The real trees had to be treated with care and watered and left in direct light between performances. The garden fur­niture was supplied by a friend. Sundry dreSSing, such as pic­tures, were more difficult to find In the correct penod and even tu­ally a local art dealer a ssisted

us. We were very fortunate that all the furniture and props were loaned to the Society by mem­bers and friends or local firms. This was acknowledged in the

programme. One note of cau­tion - we should have increased our insurance cover as, after the production, It transpired that some of the furniture and props were more valuable than we had thought and we certainly hadn't been suitably covered. PRODUCTION I am sure that everyone con­cerned with this play enjoyed it tremendously. The parts are wonderful and the words so memorable. They had to be learned as soon as possible be­fore holidays or during them! Indeed throughout the four per­formances only three prompts were needed. We tried to keep the playas straight as possible, with all the cast believing every word they said - we did not wish it to become farcical, which could easily have happened in some scenes. The play was well received by our audiences and very favourable comments were heard as they left our little the­atre and, after all, that is what It Is all about. D

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