Watching two grown men engage in a verbal sparring match over the consumption of muffins is funny on its own. Whether or not adding a cake fight into the mix of this already absurd scene makes it better is entirely subjective, and the main area of debate for theatre-goers who see the National Arts Centre’s (NAC) current adaptation of the Oscar Wilde classic The Importance of Being Earnest.
The entire ensemble, particularly actors Alex McCooeye and Christopher Moriss who played the roles of Algernon and Jack respectively, brought a brand of physical comedy to Wilde’s play that would seem more at home in a 1930’s screwball comedy. Cakes were thrown, heads were smacked, and couches were jumped on far more than one might expect in a comedy of manners.
The play celebrates Oscar Wilde’s 160th birthday. On Oct. 16, the NAC organized a birthday celebration in honour of the playwright and to promote the performance.
For project manager for Banfield agency Emily Charette and designer Amber Warren, finally seeing the play on Nov. 4 was especially gratifying, because they’ve both helped to promote it.
“It’s nice to come here and be able to see . . . the characters alive onstage,” said Warren, who designed posters for the show and invitations for the Wilde birthday party. She said she read the play to get inspiration for the designs.
Both Warren and Charrette said they enjoyed the physical humour of this particular production.
“It added another layer on top of it,” Warren said. She and Charette agreed the second act was their favorite, particularly the final muffin-eating scene. Along with an unexpected cake fight, the moment where Algernon emits a high-pitched hoot after taking a drink of particularly sugary tea made this particular scene memorable.
“We were in tears,” Charette said. “I’m a big fan of slapstick comedy. I’ve always thought it was pretty funny so I enjoyed it. I thought that was a good touch to the play.”
It was a good touch for McCooeye who seemed to be channeling John Cleese in his performance of Algernon. Tall and gangling, he leapt about gracefully as Jack chased him around the room during their opening argument, clearing an ottoman and jumping off a couch with mock balletic hand gestures.
This sort of behavior coupled with some humorous sideburns made his portrayal memorable, more Monty Python than Masterpiece Theatre. His emphatic declarations that flirting with one’s own husband is “like washing one’s own clean linen in public,” brought the house down.
However, some physical comedy was too much, said audience member Toby Stewart.
“I’ve read the play but it’s my first time seeing it,” he said. “It’s more slapstick than I thought it would be. It’s good in spots . . . I think it distracts from the wit of the writing though.”
This distraction was especially apparent during Jack and Gwendolyn’s proposal scene. The spectacle of Jack hiding from Lady Bracknell under Gwendolyn’s skirt felt out of place and clownish as did many other skips, hops, trips, and head slappings. Whispers of “was that really necessary,” could occasionally be heard in the audience.
This particular production goes overboard with slapstick but it’s still imbued with Wilde’s love for nonsense. His actual script shines through regardless.
Lines like “it isn’t easy to be anything nowadays, there’s such a lot of beastly competition,” and “we live in an age of ideals,” ring as true today as they did in 1895.
