A prime example of farce
Many of the smaller theatre spaces across London prove a great breeding ground and venues that open theatre up to new audiences. The Golden Goose Theatre on Camberwell New Road is one such performance space. The New Rep Theatre company have the pleasure to bring their production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest for a short run, writes Christopher Peacock.
Wilde’s comedy of manners is about friends Jack and Algernon, who create and use false identities to escape their social obligations and pursue love interests. Jacks “Ernest” falls for Gwendolen (a cousin of Algernon), whilst Algernon also uses Jack’s fictional brother “Ernest” to woo Jack’s young charge, Cecily. A prime example of farce, the chaos ensues when the two women meet and expose the false identities.
As a repertory company The New Rep Theatre Company’s ethos is to help bring classical theatre to new audiences and make it accessible for those who would stay away from such forms of entertainment. The Importance of Being Earnest is their second play and director David Kight’s production modernises this popular Victorian farce to do exactly that. With updated references and the whole show framed as a studio recording of a 90s sitcom, this post modernist interpretation works in engaging a new audience. An audience that will not be too attached to famous productions and portrayals on film. The use of canned laughter to accent where the traditional jokes and wit in the script are, worked as highlights and in turn allowed the performers to find more humour in the text which the young audience watching certainly picked up on.
A rather young company of actors they all played best when generating humour off hand rather than playing to Wilde’s script. Frustratingly there were many times where lines were lost under the laughter as they were more keen to get through the script than ride the laugh. The young audiences clearly enjoyed the work of the cast and I must say Emily Foxton as Lady Bracknell was the pick of the performances even though it played closer in style than the other more modern takes on the characters. As a company who are trying to bring fresh eyes onto classic theatre I feel their choice of producing comedies is a safe one and naturally want to see the company go from strength to strength.
The Golden Goose, Camberwell until 29th March.
Tickets on sale now at www.thenewrep.com or on the official New Rep Eventbrite page. Be sure to check out Pay What You Can Fridays!
