…Earnest? – Richmond Theatre, London

Writers: Josh King, Simon Paris and Say It Again, Sorry?

Director: Simon Paris

Somewhere between a farce and a fever dream, …Earnest? is a riotous reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s seminal show. The premise is simple but effective: the actor playing Ernest has failed to arrive, and the show must go on, with help from the audience.

It begins innocently enough. A stately period set, a curtain rises, but when the show’s flustered director, Simon Slough (played with exceptional comic anxiety by Josh Haberfield), storms the stage to announce the crisis at hand, the fourth wall shatters. An emergency audition ensues, leading to the eventual selection of a new Ernest from the stalls, an unsuspecting audience member whose performance becomes integral to the show’s success – no pressure!

From there, the unravelling continues. More audience members are roped in as cast members mysteriously fall ill, exit dramatically, or succumb to whiskey-fuelled meltdowns. Scripts are misplaced, sound effects mistimed, lines fed through desperate whispers or are missed entirely. And yet none of it is accidental. This is precisely engineered chaos, a show that walks the line between spontaneity and structure with extraordinary control.

Rhys Tees is a whirlwind of characters: from a deadpan butler to an overwrought Miss Prism. Guido Garcia Lueches is equally sharp, as are Judith Amsenga and Trynity Silk, who manage the high-wire act of acting badly (on purpose) while ensuring things stay on track. Ben Mann, as the beleaguered stage manager Josh, delivers some of the night’s biggest laughs.

Crucially, …Earnest? isn’t just a novelty or gimmick. Beneath the pandemonium lies a deep affection for Wilde’s original text and an understanding of its satire. The bones of The Importance of Being Earnest remain visible: the social climbing, the absurd misunderstandings, the play’s irony, even as the production gleefully dismembers the rest. It manages to preserve the wit while entirely transforming the form.

There are shades here of The Play That Goes Wrong and even Fawlty Towers. But what sets …Earnest? apart is its reliance on total unpredictability. The show is never the same twice. No script survives intact. No actor is entirely safe. And the joy of it is that we’re all in on the joke.

By the end, the theatre feels less like an audience and more like a company. Strangers cheer each other on, groan at missed cues, and rise to their feet in collective celebration. It’s hard to leave without a smile, and maybe a lingering sense of relief that you weren’t called up yourself.

…Earnest? might bear only a passing resemblance to the play Wilde wrote, but it embraces its spirit with gusto. It’s not subtle, and nor should it be. What it is is supremely silly, gloriously inventive, and genuinely hilarious.

Runs until 14 June 2025