The Importance of Being Earnest – Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester

Writer: Oscar Wilde

Director: Natasha Rickman

Guffaws and giggles have penetrated the foliage of Grosvenor Park this week as Storyhouse’s The Importance of Being Earnest has left its audiences in hysterics. The classic comedy of manners, first performed in 1895, remains fresh and farcical to this day, given a new lease of life by the talented team at Storyhouse.

For those unfamiliar with the story, it is a play about the veneer of respectability expected by the Victorian upper classes. As Oscar Wilde states through the somewhat pretentious character of Gwendolen Fairfax: ‘In matters of great importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.’. In order to keep up this pretence of respectability, we discover that Jack Worthing (played by James Sheldon) has been leading a double life. As the dignified pillar of his countryside community, he enjoys a little mischief up in town by pretending to be his fictional brother Ernest. What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

This is a witty, fast paced play and the text is simply hilarious. It is a real pleasure to watch a company doing the words such justice. From the petty squabbles of Jack and Algernon, to the tension ridden afternoon tea shared by Gwendolen and Cecily, this production perfectly satirises the absurdity of the aristocracy. Wilde himself would be proud of this production, there is no doubt.

Sheldon makes a charming, bumbling, Jack Worthing. There is a sense that he wants to do the right thing by society, but clearly can’t help himself take part in a little bit of misdirection to win the heart of the cosmopolitan Gwendolen Fairfax, played with a mix of style, absurdity and a splash of glamour by Hanora Kamen.

Sheldon’s Jack Worthing is partnered in a hilarious comedy double act with Lucas Button’s Algernon Moncrieff. Button gives Algenon a hint of Hugh Grant in the late 90s, charming but naughty. Button and Sheldon are a dynamic duo, their timing and physical comedy is just magnificent.

Watching the production, you feel like the cast are having as much fun as the audience. Yolanda Ovide as the romantic ingénue Cecily Cardew gives the character a bolshie confidence that one could recognise in a teenager of 2024. Both Ovide and Kamen’s Cecily and Gwendolen give the characters obstinate, righteousness mixed with feminine tenderness to give the performance just the right level of absurdity.

Joanne Howarth in the glorious role of Lady Bracknell is a matriarchal lioness; domineering yet always controlled with a wit set to sting – the epitome of upper class conservatism. She is contrasted beautifully by Natasha Bain and Robert Maskell as Miss Prism and Rev. Canon Chasuble respectfully, whose on stage chemistry is a farcical reflection of Victorian sexual repression. They are all just so funny!

One must mention the supporting cast Tom Benjamin, Oisín Thompson and Jenny Murphy as the servant characters such as Lane and Merriman. Their part in the onstage buffoonery is equally commendable.

Director Natasha Rickman has worked with the cast to bring out the fast-paced humour and hare-brained hilarity of this very witty script. Incorporating the audience, making them a fundamental part of the production through reference and staging makes them complicit in the characters adventures and scrapes – it works beautifully.

Everything in this production just fits. Paula James’s musical composition adds another layer to the farce. Elizabeth Wright’s bold and bright design fizzes like sherbet – the costume as set looks like they have been picked out of a box of quality streets – it’s gorgeous!

If you haven’t got a ticket yet, get one. It’s a glorious setting in the middle of Chester. On a balmy summer evening, can there be a nicer thing to do than enjoy a glass of fizz whilst laughing ‘til your ribs hurt watching a very talented company being seriously silly? Sounds like perfection.

Runs until 1st September