The Importance of being Earnest
****
Farewell to the Theatre
Rose, Kingston
**
It's a common misapprehension that The Importance of Being Earnest, propelled by those deliciously tart one-liners, is an indestructible piece of theatre, able to withstand the ministrations of any production.
What Stephen Unwin's energetic, punchy take demonstrates is The Importance of Doing the First Act Superbly. If Earnest is launched into dramatic life, as it is here, with zing and verve, we'll be laughing all the way to the handbag.
Daniel Brocklebank and Bruce Mackinnon make Jack and Algy two appealingly sparky young men about town and soon we're Bunbury-ing about contentedly with them, down to the country, where Jenny Rainsford's mischievously wide-eyed ward Cecily perks herself up by reading her own diary. We laugh happily in anticipation of the juiciest bons mots and, crucially, we relax: this most delightful of all comedies is in safe hands. A proscenium arch has been placed on the unwieldy stage both to emphasise the piece's marked theatricality and also to try to shape the playing space a little. It's a valiant effort, but there still seem to be countless unused square metres: at the denouement, the two sides face each other across the living room as if they're at opposite ends of a tennis court.
This repertory season proves that Jane Asher does doughty, as Lady Bracknell, far better than whimsical. As Dorothy, the fading actress in Harley Granville-Barker's slight and lugubrious one-act two-hander Farewell to the Theatre (1916), Asher never convinces that she's doing anything more than reeling off a lot of unrewarding lines she's been forced to learn.
Richard Cordery battles nobly with the underwritten part of Dorothy's loyal accountant and would-be lover, but it's desperately hard to care whether Dorothy is giving up the theatre, or if it has forsaken her. Whichever, it's a grindingly dull 45 minutes.
In rep until Oct 30 (08444 821 556, rosetheatrekingston.org).
Farewell To The Theatre
Rose Theatre
High Street, KT1 1HL
