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Handbag? Just musing here, but if directors are casting for the role of Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, actors would be wise to surprise and excite them with their delivery of that one word. Then move on, of course, with other iconic spoken moments in this most timeless and demanding 19th century theatrical benchmark in the canon of the British, nay of world, theatre of wit. Now just what brings this on? The McMaster Thespian Company will mount Earnest this week for an four–performance run beginning Thursday 26th, at Baltimore House on King William Street. It will close there on Saturday, January 28th.
Timeless describes the category of the play, surely, but tiresome is also the risk one runs when considering the number of manifestations it gets each year here and abroad. Treatments have ranged from musical to modern dress, from wacky to just plain Wilde. So I challenged Director Andrea Pohlmann the other day as to what she’s planning for this MTC production. “Push as many boundaries as possible,” she averred unhesitatingly. Just 20–something herself, and with a cast of nine 20–somethings to mold into the heady world of Wildean wit and the stately style of minor Victorian aristocracy, she speaks with bravura, with barely contained electric delight in her confidence. “Oscar Wilde as you haven’t seen it before!” One can only be encouraged, one’s expectations cheerfully aroused, and by the time her producer Riane Leonard joins us, this under–30 Importance begins to take on a stimulating importance of its own. Young herself, Leonard brings authoritative credentials to this MTC project, a convincing background in acting, directing, stage–managing and producing. Together with Pohlmann a real sense of something happening here emerges for me. They’re taking impressive risks that are exciting.
For instance, they do not shy away from the problem of their actors’ ages, nor from the difficulty of playing against gender. In the latter case using a male actor to play Lady Bracknell has recently broken enough precedence in major commercial productions that it should raise no fears when young Jimmy Skembaris tackles this role. But how to handle Riane Leonard herself as Lane, the butler? A female butler in a 19th century drawing room? Take it and run with it, both Leonard and Pohlmann explain. Use the opportunity to explore the devious dual life that underlies the superficial sophistication of this society. No sense hiding that she’s under 30, too. To illustrate this, they’ve devised an in–your–face poster for the play with Jack and Algernon in almost full–frontal poses, nothing but their hats strategically held to protect the innocent. Of course there will be no Victorian nudity in this production, nor will Victorian prudery be sacrificed. “No,” Pohlmann says, “But we see that this play deals essentially with naked persons whose basic flaws Wilde is exposing to society.”
The poster wants this implication to be very explicit. I get the message. The apparent smart Wilde wit when discovered beneath the text is but the clothing for the very human nakedness of the society at which he smirks. So I am very much looking forward with high expectations to this MTC production, as should be our readers, our Hamilton theatre–goers. It’s a cast of gifted young men and women: Grant Winestock and Harrison Cruikshank play Jack and Algernon respectively, while Gwendolyn and Cecily are played by Sarah Granger and Jessica Teicher in that order. Already noted, Jimmy Skembaris is Lady Bracknell and Riane Leonard is Lane, the butler. Riley Ducharme as Chasuble, Christopher Vergara as Merriman, and Rebekah Pullen as Miss Prism complete the cast. Authentic costumes are in order and the setting will be effectively minimalist. Set your expectations, Hamilton, for the unexpected. V
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
By Oscar WIlde.
Jan. 26 — 28.
Presented by The McMaster Thespian Company.
@ Baltimore House
43 King William St., Hamilton.
macthespians.webs.com
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