STAGE WEST: "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Lamb's Players Theatre

Rachael VanWormer and Brian Mackey in "The Importance of Being Earnest." Photo courtesy of Lamb's Players Theatre

            In a little play called “Hamlet,” Polonius opined that “brevity is the soul of wit.”
            Obviously, Shakespeare never met Oscar Wilde.
            Yeah, yeah, they lived and wrote in different centuries, but the point is this: While perhaps no one composed wittier one-liners than did Wilde, he also crafted a language all its own that politely resounded with sharp-tongued humor and sophisticated repartee.
            There’s no greater demonstrate of this ingenuity than in “The Importance of Being Earnest,” the quintessential Wilde drawing-room farce that’s more delicious than the cucumber sandwiches man-about-town Algernon Moncrieff devours in Act One.
            Lamb’s Players Theatre, which has staged Wilde’s “A Woman Of No Importance” and “An Ideal Husband,” is presenting “The Importance of Being Earnest” for the first time, with Kerry Meads directing. Meads couldn’t have asked for an ensemble more game for the fanciful fun of this spoof of Victorian properness. Brian Mackey and Michael Louis Cusimano are brisk and spirited as the benignly adversarial friends Jack Worthing and Algie Moncrieff, both of whom will covet the name “Earnest” as a ruse to win the hands of Gwendolen Fairfax (Rachael VanWormer) and Cecily Cardew (Lauren King Thompson) respectively. The latter pair’s initial meeting, the catalyst for the men’s device ultimately coming a cropper, is one of the best played scenes in the production.
            It’s David McBean, stealing every moment as Gwendolen’s snobbish mother Lady Bracknell, who takes the last bow at show’s end. He more than earns his due. I dare you not to laugh out loud. McBean knows he’s the audience pleaser, too, facing the house to deliver many of Lady Bracknell’s most elitist and patronizing pronouncements.
            Deborah Gilmour Smyth is a perfect Miss Prism here, and Brian Salmon sputters superbly as the country reverend Dr. Chasuble for whom Miss Prism yearns.
            Meads’ direction ensures that every moment counts in this wordy (though what words!) affair -- even the set changes, accompanied by the music of Chopin, handled by house servants Merriman (Geno Carr) and Lane (John Rosen). If the cast members overplay their hands at times, this can be forgiven. The principals of “The Importance of Being Earnest” are extravagant and theatrical. These actors deserve plaudits for handling the daunting complexity of Wilde’s banter and humorous oratory.
            Lamb’s’ Jeanne Reith has the cast lushly costumed, right down to the set-striking man servants. That set, designed by Sean Fanning, is a drawing-room delight as well.
            There’s no escaping the fact that “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a period piece. Audiences today that gorge on streaming sitcoms and more contemporary-minded live theater might regard Wilde’s classic as a snooty anachronism. If so, they should pay heed to the subtitle he gave this play: “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.”
            So there.
            “The Importance of Being Earnest” runs through Nov. 10 at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado.