Writer: Steve Dawson
Performers: Out Cast Theatre
A raunchy riff on a timeless classic,The Importance of Being Earnest as performed by Three F*cking Queens & a Duck offers a play-within-a-play narrative that showcases Wilde’s classic while dragging us through the chaotic world of three aging drama queens at a dizzying pace.
The play follows three failing “Queens” attempting to put on The Importance of Being Earnest, hindered by management that continually demands the production be shortened, and by constant bickering within their cast about – among almost every other topic – who is going to play Lady Bracknell. There is very little dialogue that isn’t arguing. It is a constant rotation of cutting insults and witty retorts, with one bodily function or another scattered throughout to keep the tone sleazy and the audience laughing.
This stream of workplace abuse is only occasionally broken when “the queens” manage to focus on why they’re actually here – namely, rehearsing their production. Those timeless, familiar lines and characters are a reassuringly solid rock to cling to within the whirlwind of the framing narrative. While these snippets don’t feel out of place – Dawson has done an excellent job keeping the feel of Wilde’s version in his own – they do offer a respite from the frenetic pace. However, anyone unfamiliar with Earnest may find themselves lost. The actual narrative of Earnestis not made particularly clear to us and, although largely irrelevant to the main plot, anyone who doesn’t know Wilde’s versionwell would certainly miss out on some of the humour.
The denouement where we actually see “the queens” production of Earnest take place is an absolute joy to watch. The scenes we see rehearsed earlier in the play now return, doubled down in their chaos, and the tension between “the queens” turns to all-out war on stage. It feels as if this is what the audience came for – The Importance of Being Earnest, performed by three queens (and, of course, the duck).
However, once the lights come up, there is a slight disappointment that we didn’t get to see how Out Cast Theatre would have treated the entire play. Even in their much-condensed version, it is clear that the cast know Earnestinside out and it perhaps feels a shame we aren’t treated to more of that. While the framing narrative holds an astounding volume of one-liners and raunchy banter, the actual plot is no match for Wilde, so suffers a little when the two are directly overlapped.
Overall,The Importance of Being Earnest as performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck is a fast-paced production with plenty of physical humour and more one-liners than one can keep track of. While diehard fans or complete Wilde newbies may be better advised to see a version of Earnestitself, anyone who delights in seeing a classic play torn apart and hastily patched up – or was disappointed at the lack of ducks in the original – will enjoy this night out.
Reviewed on 10th and runs until 13 May 2023