★★★★
It’s impossible to truly dislike The Importance of Being Earnest. In the 131 years since it first made its appearance at the St. James’s Theatre (where it was almost unanimously well-received), Oscar Wilde’s impeccably written comedy has been adapted countless times. Its farcical parodies of late Victorian dramatic norms and manners, and affectionate probing of the upper classes, is still just as hilarious today, standing the test of time even more so than a number of sitcoms from the last few decades. The secret to its longevity is its gleeful send-up of that mainstay British comedy trope—class—and the brilliant job it does of it. So it’s always refreshing to see someone do something different with the text.
Max Webster’s rendition, which received its first outing at the National Theatre last year with a different cast, is its own entity. The text isn’t tweaked, save for a scattering of fourth wall nods and creative scene changes, but the style is. You know you’re in fresh territory when we open with a full drag dance number, a spotlight pinned on Olly Alexander draped across a grand piano in a hot pink gown. Having proved his dramatic skills in Channel 4’s heartbreaking It’s A Sin, Alexander shows off his comedy chops, lauding it up as a blissfully flamboyant Algernon. Played brilliantly against Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s Jack, the two glide through each dazzling scene, as the play around them leans wholeheartedly into the campiness inherent in Earnest’s bloodlines. As with the opening number, this is generally successful. It’s a play that lives and dies on the chemistry of its core cast, and fortunately, the main quartet (Kitty Hawthorne’s Gwendolen and Jessica Whitehurst’s Cecily included) as well as the supporting players are clearly having a blast.
As expected, it’s Stephen Fry’s Lady Bracknell who warrants the most laughs. Bracknell’s a part that’s an eternal challenge to play since the audience arrives with our preconceptions sullied by prior performances. Whether in drag or not, Wilde’s commanding matriarch has been played by a stalwart of acting legends, from Judi Dench to Edith Evans to the steely Sharon D. Clarke in this production’s original outing. No easy acts to follow, but Fry manages it, delivering Bracknell’s withering drawls with a haughtiness that works well. Lines like “A handbag?” and “To lose one parent may be regarded as misfortune…” are hard to utter when the audience knows them so vividly, their preordained ideas of who this character is and how they should be spoken already cemented. It’s to Fry’s credit he falls into no traps, his reading of the character like Maggie Smith mixed with his own General Melchitt (and one swift Google search reveals, yes, Smith played Bracknell in a fittingly-cast 1993 production). Knowing Fry’s admiration for Wilde’s work—he even played the writer in a 1997 biopic—you wonder why it’s taken him so long to take on a part he was clearly made for.
Some theatregoers may find aspects of the costume a distraction. Amping up everything to adhere to the über-campness, some choices feel a little off, like having Jack kitted out entirely in black throughout Scene 2 against Algernon’s alabaster-white, or Gwendolen’s questionable purple top hat and pink-and-white scarf, making her look less Victorian debutante and more like she’s tumbled out of the pages of Dr Seuss. The set design frequently has an Alice in Wonderland feel with its cartoonish garishness, but none of that detracts overtly from the slickness of the cast’s delivery, lapping up that famous Wildean wordplay with finesse.
Those who saw the original version of Webster’s show may be inclined to draw comparisons, but to the uninitiated, it’s a sparkling display of whimsical fabulousness, revelling in the queerness of a theatrical comedy classic. This Earnest may not please purists, but it offers a sparklingly camp reinvention, carried by magnetic performances from Olly Alexander, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and a pitch-perfect Stephen Fry. Playful and unabashedly joyous, it proves Wilde’s comedy still has room for reinvention. No fan of this particular wordsmith should miss out.
The Importance of Being Earnest will be performed at the Noël Coward Theatre until 10th January 2026.
Words by James Morton
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