Written by Oscar Wilde

Directed by Gordon Barr

Designed by Heather Grace Currie

Dig out the finest silverware, prep those cucumber sandwiches, and for God’s sake, stop eating the muffins – The Importance of Being Earnest is the star of the season, and everyone will be looking for its hand if they’ve got any sense of taste.

Let’s be frank. The exceptional words, wit and eccentric marvels of Oscar Wilde already set the foundations of The Importance of Being Earnest with a firm footing – the success of the show is almost always in the hands of the director, and crucially, the ensemble.

So, thank heavens Gordon Barr has, perhaps, the finest ensemble gathering they could have for this hilarious, vivacious, and camp staging in the Glasgow Botanical Gardens.

Scoffing up the sandwiches, Stephen Arden and James Boal (with a wonderfully put-upon Johnny Panchaud) set the production up marvellously as John (Jack) Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, bachelors at large, one with his sights set on the Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax, the other, anything with a pulse. Garbed in the finest retro gear that the wardrobe department could conjure from the beyond, the pair possess undiluted merriment, glee, and diva-esque confidence required to fill the stage and the Gardens at large.

They have wealth (though Algie may have a few debts…), status, education, and the adoration of fine and beautiful women. Life couldn’t be sweeter. Well, there is one issue. Their names are repulsive.

Lead down the garden path of love and allure, the pair carry Wilde’s basic plot beats with precision and marvellous comradery as they frequently attempt to outdo one another in expression and projection. Jack, intending to marry the quick-paced and witty Gwendolin, carried with superb exuberance and control by Claire Macallister, wraps himself into a frenzy attempting to woo her mother into accepting the marriage, despite the fact he has no lineage, being found in a handbag at Victoria station as a new-born.

While dear-old chap Algie has a different matter at hand, besotted by Jack’s ward Cecily Cardew, who has every element of her life practised and poised to her expectations, needs to find a way to put his roguish manner behind him. Nothing here is bygone, especially the play’s less-than-optimistic view of the nation’s ruling class, who seem to have more lives than a bag of cats. It slots into contemporary Scotland with exceptional ease – no character is too outlandish, nothing too overblown despite the levels of melodrama and sarcasm on display. It’s hyper-realism to the extreme and perfectly pitched to a starving crowd who lap up every absurd moment.

The mild outbursts of the Weegie nature slip into the script, and though some may think it distracting, fits so marvellously into the cadence of the show that they garner laughs from the crowd. Éimi Quinn makes a remarkably superb impact on the audience as Cecily, flipping between nightmare and cut-throat private-school Meangirl to angelic poise with a snappy pace and burst of vibrancy. It’s a performance which re-affirms their future in Scottish theatre: a bright, strong, and likely lengthy one.

There’s more than a hint of Rosalind Wiseman to the performance, which balances out the more expectant Julian Fellowes presence of a magnificent Lynsey-Anne Moffat as governess Miss Prism, who rounds out the hilarity with Panchaud’s double-entendre spouting (purely by accident) Reverend Canon Chasuble. And after turning in an exceptional Falstaff, Alan Steele sharpens their halberd as the infamous Lady Bracknell, somehow managing to not be the most outlandish performance – a sharp choice in ensuring the character still carries weight and isn’t too much of a gag for the show.

The initial act, when checking the time at intervals, is far lengthier than at first glance. And though some may feel the need to wander and massage their rear, it never feels as long as it is. Indeed, even as the sun sets and the wind picks up, the smiles and delight of the audience have not dipped one iota: if anything, has grown.

If you’ve ever seen The Grand Budapest Hotel or the recent Asteroid City and thought: “I wonder what a Wes Anderson stage show would be like”. Well, it’d likely look like this. The pastels, the gaudiness, the neckerchiefs, and lord have mercy, the over-the-shoulder lavender cardigans: it’s all too much in the best possible manner. So much so that Heather Grace Currie’s design plays into the falsehood nature of the entirety of the show; orchestrated, primmed and primed to be an exaggerated contemporary incarnation of Wilde’s vision. Overly saturated, everything becomes a simulated projection – these are not homes and gardens to play in, stock-ready locations to be seen in, to add a filter to it and engorge and polish it as much as possible for the world to see. 

Lampooning the aristocracy to this very day, Wilde has always stood at the same level as the Bard in terms of quality: in some cases surpassed Shakespeare. And while (like Jekyll and Hyde) The Importance of Being Earnest may not strictly be ‘The Bard’, this show is as successful and pruned to be fitting as the stand-out show of this season’s Botanical romp. Slap on your best, roll with the hilarity and enjoy every terrific ounce of this masterful comedic lustre.