Review of The Importance of Being Earnest, Westport Country Playhouse
Subtitled "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People," Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest has the distinction of seeming socially relevant in perpetuity. No matter how dated it becomes (it was first performed in 1895), Wilde's clever farce stands on one unshakeable foundation: polite society is by its very nature trivial. No matter how "serious" anyone may presume to be, and no matter how dire any particular historical situation may be deemed, society—when its members pay calls and eat and drink and relax and court and marry and celebrate—is bound to a code of conduct that prides itself on the bonhomie of triviality. While important matters of mating and heredity and consanguinity are resolved by the close of the play, Wilde's engagingly tongue-in-cheek rendering of how people—of a certain social standing—comport themselves, no matter what is happening, has served this delicious comedy quite well for quite some time.
John “Earnest” Worthington (Michael Raver), Algernon Moncrief (Anthony Michael Martinez) in Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Westport Country Playhouse; photo by Carol Rosegg
The Westport Country Playhouse production, playing until November 15, is well-served by Melissa Rain Anderson's direction—which keeps the play's affable, quizzical tone throughout—and by the sumptuousness of the set, costumes, hair, lighting and sound. The story concerns two friends, Algernon and Earnest, who each maintain a fiction in their lives: Algernon Moncrief (Anthony Michael Martinez) has a fictional friend he calls Bunbury, an invalid whose condition necessitates Algernon's absence from any obligations he finds onerous; Earnest Worthington (Michael Raver), whose real name is Jack (or John), is in fact living in London as his alter ego. As Jack he lives in the country, a foundling adopted by a benefactor and charged with a ward, Cecily Cardew (Kristen Hahn). As Earnest, Jack has been courting Algernon's cousin Gwendolyn Fairfax (Katy Tang) and is winning near the goal but for two snags which surface early with a sure sense of absurdity and surprise: Gwendolyn will only marry a man if he is named Earnest, and Gwedolyn's aunt, Lady Bracknell (Christine Pedi), wants no parts of Jack or Earnest once she learns of his mysterious antecedents. Of course, Algernon, learning of Jack's real situation, takes an immediate interest in meeting his friend's ward. In the country, Cecily is attended be a governess, Miss Prism (Jan Neuberger), to whom the local curate, Rev. Canon Chasuble (Triney Sandoval), has taken a mutually agreeable shine, and who will be significant in another way that indicates a fondness for Dickensian coincidence.
Kristen Hahn, Katy Tang, Triney Sandoval, Anthony Michael Martinez, Christine Pedi, Jan Neuberger, Michael Raver in Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Westport Country Playhouse; photo by Carol Rosegg
The show provides plenty of visual interest thanks to the concerted efforts of James J. Fenton (Set), Annie J. Lee (Costumes), Alexander Fetchko (Lighting), J. Jared Jonas (Wig, hair & Makeup), and John Gromada (Sound and Original Music—some played "expressively" by Algernon). Particularly fine is a set that has a quite impressive double staircase situated so as to be both indoors and outdoors as needed, with striking surroundings that have the look of interchangeable cut-out pieces for stages we may have played with as children. That deliberate sense of artifice adds its own comical and theatrical value. Several of the characters are apt to speak solely for our benefit and are also willing to strike poses and attitudes that belong on stage, knowingly. It's not so much that we're made aware that we're watching a replica of behavior in olden times but that we're shown how much the façade of social relations is, in Wilde's view, a put-on. Here, we're in on the joke.
Which is helpful, since some of Wilde's actual jokes don't quite land as no doubt they once did. There are brittle asides aplenty, and today's audience is perhaps more apt to expect dialogue to advance plot rather than posit bon mots—about aristocracy, revolutionaries, and the pigeon-holing of behaviors generally ascribed to one gender or the other (only two are reflected upon). The cast presents an inspired version of the necessary British air of easily punctured sangfroid. Everyone has at least one instance—more like several—to exasperate or to be exasperated. The voices and tones of the characters are sharply realized, and that's the point (or the joke) quite often.
Let's start with the two friends. As Algernon, the more foppish and disreputable of the two, Martinez plays his role with cavalier relish; Algernon is conceited, certainly, but knows how entertaining he can be when he likes. Raver's John (or Earnest or Jack) Worthington is generally put-upon in Algernon's presence, winning in Gwendolyn's, peremptory in Cecily's, and beaten down in Lady Bracknell's; it's a wonderful carousel of emotional registers, culminating in the moment, late in the play, when Worthington sees his chance fully to exasperate Lady Bracknell. As the good lady, Christine Pedi plays a high-toned grande dame who would like to be used to having her way; alas, as her every petulant aside shows, the modern world is not apt to permit such usage. She stands (or rather sits, ex cathedra-like) for a social and moral order that Wilde's play teases and pokes but doesn't really aim to contradict. All's well that ends well, much as it was for Shakespeare.
Cecily Cardew (Kristen Hahn), Lane (Mark Silence), Gwendolyn Fairfax (Katy Tang) in Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Westport Country Playhouse; photo by Carol Rosegg
As the two young ladies who have a fondness for "Earnest" regardless of whether or not the appellation has an object, Katy Tang and Kristen Hahn rise to dizzying heights of dizziness with great aplomb. Both women may seem the epitome of triviality, and yet the standards they stand for are passionately held. The scene when the two meet, pledge friendship, discover they are in competition, abuse one another, and then join forces against the machinations of their chosen males is a delight but also a lesson in generalized social relations. We see how a young woman's only hope of making her opinion felt is by marrying well, and so what she expresses during courtship has the ring of a decree. That element is well served by Tang, whose Gwendolyn is a study in how to please herself and have others pleased by the effect. Hahn's Cecily, who has recorded an affair with Jack's brother Earnest before she ever meets him, is pitched to both disarm and divert. There's a very full moment when she seems to take in the audience as though suddenly aware of how all this must look and sound. Of all the characters, she seems to gain most in stature as the play goes on. And so we might actually believe she could subdue the wayward Algernon.
Cecily Cardew (Kristen Hahn), Algernon Moncrief (Anthony Michael Martinez), Lady Bracknell (Christine Pedi) in Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Westport Country Playhouse; photo by Carol Rosegg
As Miss Prism and Rev. Chasuble, respectively, Jan Neuberger and Triney Sandoval help round out the plot while also bringing in additional comical tones. Sandoval's Chasuble brims with good cheer and a certain detachment, and his courtship of Miss Prism is a sweet subplot. Miss Prism, a plausible governess, has her defining moment when, accosted by Lady Bracknell, Neuberger conveys at once fear, surprise and a comical switch from authority to subservience.
There are many such touches that are worth watching for, and it's to Anderson's credit that the show doesn't rush through the play but rather lets the cast nimbly tread dear Oscar's patiently planted minefield. Thumbs up!
Miss Prism (Jan Neuberger), Rev. Chasuble (Triney Sandoval) in Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Westport Country Playhouse; photo by Carol Rosegg
The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde
Directed by Melissa Rain Anderson
Set Designer: James J. Fenton; Costume Designer: Annie J. Lee; Lighting Designer: Alexander Fetchko; Sound Designer & Original Music: John Gromada; Co-Sound Designer: Matt Otto; Wig, Hair & Makeup Designer: J. Jared Janas; Stage Manager: Frank Lombardi; Assistant Set Designer: Luca Plitz; Associate Wig, Hair & Makeup Designer: Lily Volle; Assistant Stage Manager: Kelley Lynne Moncrief; Production Assistant: Chloe Marie Lupini; Assistant Costume Designer: Greer Vashon; Prop Supervisor: Buffy Cardoza
Cast: Kristen Hahn, Anthony Michael Martinez, Jan Neuberger, Christine Pedi, Michael Raver, Triney Sandoval, Mark Silence, Katy Tang
Westport Country Playhouse
October 28-November 15, 2025