‘Importance of Being Earnest’ a study in perfect irreverence at Ohio Shakespeare Festival

It's a lot of fun watching the blithely superficial young characters navigate all their silliness in "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Ohio Shakespeare Festival in Akron.

As the theater says, the outrageous 1895 comedy by Oscar Wilde, his most popular play, is "all about marriage, morals, good looks and other deeply important things."

Ohio Shakespeare Festival's cast of nine, directed by Nancy Cates, expertly performs Wilde's abundance of witty dialogue as the play's hopelessly shallow characters take themselves ever so seriously. In focusing on the trivial, Irish playwright Wilde's farce mocks Victorian society, including everything from romance to marriage to education.

Leading the way in this witty romp are Equity actors Geoff Knox and Andrew Cruse, who make a perfectly comical pairing as idle young gentlemen Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing. Knox's Algernon is especially irreverent, eating up everything in sight before his aunt even arrives as his guest for tea and commenting about how distasteful it is to watch married couples flirt with each other.

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These best friends are both hopelessly in love, Jack with Algernon's cousin Gwendolyn (Tess Burgler) and Algernon with Jack's ward, Cecily (Maya Nicholson). At the start of this story, the biggest concern either of the gents has is how to get out of unwanted social obligations.

They achieve that by inventing other fictitious characters, one of which is Algernon's excuse to leave for the country and the other being country gent Jack's excuse for getting away to the city.

We learn that both young men are leading double lives, which of course leads to mistaken identities and numerous comical complications. As the complications grow and these two men repeatedly try to out-dupe each other, Cruse's nervous, incredulous facial expressions are a hoot to behold.

This three-act play runs nearly 2½ hours with two intermissions at Greystone Hall. The story takes place in Algernon's handsome home in London, followed by Jack's manor garden featuring trellises and roses in the country. Both elegant sets are designed by Natalie Steen.

Burgler and Nicholson shine as young ladies Gwendolyn and Cecily, who both dream of marrying a man named Ernest. Their fixation on the name is the funniest running gag in the show.

These young women have highly romanticized notions of courtship and aren't shy about telling their love interests how they expect things to be. The way actresses Nicholson and Burgler display their silly characters' love diaries to each other is hilarious.

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As roguish a dandy as Algernon may be, he offers words of wisdom to Jack when he observes that women friends only call each other sister "when they have called each other a lot of other things first."

That's perfect foreshadowing for the passive aggressive yet very funny catfight that ensues between Gwendolyn and Cecily when they think they've become engaged to the same man.

Kelsey Tomlinson's costumes are beautiful, featuring a peachy confection of a dress for Gwendolyn and a mauve one for Cecily. She's also created a comical getup for Algernon for when he shows up in in the country — an orange striped jacket and hat with a matching orange band that evokes a creamsicle-colored Bert from "Mary Poppins."

As the imperious Lady Bracknell, Gwendolyn's mother and Algernon's aunt, actress Holly Humes impressively comes across as severe and idiotic at the same time. Jim Fippin is also quite funny as Algernon's very dry manservant, Lane.

"The Importance of Being Earnest" includes a wacky back story about a baby and a handbag. And it's impossible to forget either Algernon's nervous devouring of muffins or the argument he and Jack get into about these baked goods.

When all is said and done, it's Algernon who provides the best perspective for Wilde's title for his delightfully droll classic: "One has to be serious about something if one is to have any amusement in life."

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

Details

Comedy: "The Importance of Being Earnest"

When: Continuing through through May 15, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Greystone Hall, 103 S. High St., Akron

Onstage: Andrew Cruse, Geoff Knox, Holly Humes, Tess Burgler, Maya Nicholson, Shley Snider, Geoffrey Darling, Jim Fippin, Mark Stoffer

Offstage: Oscar Wilde, playwright; Nancy Cates, director; Ashley Dyer, stage manager; Natalie Steen, scenic designer; Kelsey Tomlinson, costume designer; Buddy Taylor, lighting and sound designer; Victoria Wamsley, costume assistant

Cost: $5-$50

Information: www.ohioshakespearefestival.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: ‘Importance of Being Earnest’ a fun romp at Ohio Shakespeare Festival