MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2025

The Importance Of Being Earnest
Adam Gillian as Jack Worthing and Meghan Tyler as the Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax
in 'The Importance Of Being Earnest'. Photo: Ciaran Bagnall

A penny for your thoughts...

There was, even needed to be, quite the pause for thought before I penned this piece, or indeed any piece in relation to the arts. For when you've been submerged in acting, song and dance that goes way beyond the immediately appealing and into the realm of intelligently and intricately crafted beauty, you do wonder if you can possibly do justice to everything you've experienced.

One instance of such intelligent and intricate craft is found in the joyous and enrapturing Lyric Theatre summer production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest, directed by Jimmy Fay. It's the third in a tremendous triumvirate of Lyric shows, Our New Girl and Nell Gwynn being the other two, which amplifies, dissects and toys with the pleasures and pressures of performative pride. Part players' theatre, part poetic showcase, part parodic operetta (yes, seriously!), it truly is a perfect blend, where an always Wilde read becomes a really wild ride.

If I'm giving the impression of a rollercoaster, that, in a big way, is pretty much what to expect - right from the moment a tuneful brass composition gives way to the appearance of Neil Keery, who will go on to play both Merriman and Lane, indicating that we silence our "mobular telephones". The wow-worthy projection design of another Neil, O'Driscoll that is, then makes its first appearance in the form of opening credits, soundtracked by excellent Garth McConaghie music. These are a present-day rarity in the cinema nowadays, never mind the theatre, and it's nothing short of delightful to be reminded of a stand-alone introductory interlude which has always been a guide, prologue or illustration for what's to come.

Allison Harding as Lady Bracknell and Calla Hughes Nic Aoidh as Cecily Cardew
in 'The Importance Of Being Earnest'. Photo: Ciaran Bagnall

Which is, to these eyes, a complicated but fascinating means of trying to answer the question of "What's in a name?". Be it one's own name or the name one chooses for themselves to keep up appearances in their society. And keeping up appearances is more than vital for Algernon "Algy" Moncrieff (Conor O'Donnell) and John "Jack" Worthing (Adam Gillian). Both of whom, at certain points, choose to go under the name "Ernest" or try to act, well, earnest, for the sake of their own lives and the women in their lives - amongst a series of zany but strangely natural human clashes and a selection box of truly ingenious theatrical ideas. It's both a funny identity story and a meeting of the truthful and daring as an accomplished art form where the audience are kept on their toes all the way through.

Stuart Marshall's set-design and Catherine Kodicek's costumes are a story in themselves, the sort that are adept at illustrating the themes of deliberate constriction within Wilde's wondrous work. For example, if someone is seen to be sitting in luxurious accommodation, wearing posh clothing, and often dining on cucumber sandwiches and bread & butter, it does look like they're finding a way to sustain wealth, health and self while the literal meat of their situation is ignored. Like they're not treating even the most apparently frivolous lifestyle with the weightiness it warrants. We do see a lot of this Algy and Jack, and Conor O'Donnell and Adam Gillian fill the famous roles with the very kind of sneering, narcissistic and flippant vigour that can only lead to trouble at their expense but cringes, chuckling and sometimes loud laughter from us. Here, Algy and Jack are like Frasier Crane and Niles Crane with double the ham and triple the cheese, a farcically heightened pairing who help in maximising the potential in the play's comic core.

But what and who is around this core also counts, and here, for deliberate want of another word, this show earnestly delivers. Meghan Tyler, who seems to get better with every portrayal, is superb as the Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax, an enticing mixture of elegance, energy and envy. In minor roles, Allison Harding, Marty Maguire and Jo Donnelly join Neil Keery in impressively balancing the stately serious with the haughtily humorous without tipping over into condescension or caricature. And the character of Cecily Cardew, played by The Snow Queen's Calla Hughes Nic Aoidh, is eye-popping both in this context and this performance. Wearing a giant bow, a pink dress with small hearts spotted all over and a red band worthy of West Side Story's Maria, this Cecily reads as every inch an intentional exaggeration and a pitiable reflection of the most notable qualities in a typical Disney or musical "princess figure", and so much more besides - the epitome of shelter in the world of art and the struggle for personality expansion that must surely follow. 

The cast of 'The Importance Of Being Earnest'. Photo: Ciaran Bagnall

One could argue that Cecily subliminally speaks for every challenge that an adaptation of popular literature faces, for when the source material is so deeply entrenched in a person's heart and mind, visual expression on stage or screen can't help but compete with imagination and expectation. Happily, it's a challenge that this Importance Of Being Earnest more than meets. Fay and assistant director Debra Hill ensure that the Wildean prose, and rest assured that the best of it is all here, leisurely and swiftly binds you to its snappy wit and stylish verbosity. It's never simply about observance – it's about almost wholly active participation, and that's definitely up there with the highest praise I've given to any show.

Furthermore, The Importance Of Being Earnest's necessity and vitality as a think piece rings clear and true because it handles that timeless dilemma of personal choices and consequences versus individual ideas and intentions, and how desire to take charge of one's life is countered, sometimes fortuitously, sometimes inconveniently, sometimes upsettingly and sometimes seemingly irreparably by the desires of others. In its entirety, it's a deluxe comedy of trial and error with all the zip, zing and zest you could possibly hope for – not a curious oddity, but a fabulous rarity, and the real deal in every sense. Thank you, Lyric Theatre.

Simon Fallaha

The Importance Of Being Earnest runs at Belfast's Lyric Theatre until Sunday July 6. For more information, and tickets, click here.