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.
No comments:
Post a Comment