I HAVE never been so confused after spending a night at the theatre before, with Say It Again, Sorry’s production of The Importance of Being… Earnest? I still can’t decide if I loved it or hated it. From overhearing some the audience members during the interval, many people expected a traditional performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. It certainly wasn’t going to be anything like that!
Opening with Algernon, Guido Garcia Lueches, at the piano. As the butler, Lane, Rhys Tees, ignores his playing. A bell rings and as Lane announces the entrance of Earnest, the lead actor doesn’t appear. Everything then goes wrong as chaos ensues. The director, Simon, runs onto the stage trying to calm everyone down, Josh, the stage manager, tries his best to help. But the show must go on, so a replacement is quickly found from the audience to play Earnest, played very well by Mark.
The next couple of hours is a completely crazy and an unbelievable performance, as more audience members replace the actors. To be fair the audience members are good at times and you do start to wonder if they have all been planted. There are some incredibly well-crafted comedic elements. The company have cleverly created an interesting production and it will be a different show every time. I might even have to go again to work out if I like it or not!
For an improvised and immersive performance, there is still chance to see The Importance of Being… Earnest? At The Darlington Hippodrome until Sunday 19th May.
