The Importance of Being Earnest @ Lyttleton Theatre...

Last night Stuart and I went to see a fantastically camp, meta, joyful modern take on Oscar Wilde's farce The Importance of Being Earnest at the Lyttleton Theatre on London's glitzy Southbank.

 

Starring Ncuti Gatwa, Sharon D Clarke, and Hugh Skinner the text sticks fairly closely to Wilde's wickedly subversive original but injects some modern themes.

 

A few modern tunes get played in the style of Bridgerton and a few modern shout outs too - hello Bruno Mars

, hello Dalston Superstore!

 

All the characters are playing it for laughs and being Wilde there were of course many laughs to be had. Earnest contains some of his funniest lines:

 

"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That is his."

 

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."

 

"If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated."

 

"Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that."

 

The plot is beautifully silly and the players do it justice.

 

Standouts were Gatwa as Algernon, the Skinner as Jack, and Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo as Fairfax.

 

Go see.

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️