Fall Play Review

                    The Importance of Being Earnest Review

           A play was written by Oscar Wilde, directed by Cheshire Academy Crew in Black Box 11/1/2018

Krystal Charter - Lane/Gribsby

Tasman "Tas" Fox - Jack Worthing 

Zoe Genden - Dr. Chausble 

Mao Inoue - Cecily Cardew

Jiaxin "Linda" Li - Lady Bracknell

Shuting "Stella" Liang - Merriman

Yuanjun "Aaron" Luo - Algernon Montcrief

Amelia Williams - Gwendolyn Fairfax

Huijin"Helen" - Zheng - Miss Prism

First and foremost, The Importance of Being Ernest began in a narrow stage and developed with a rapid conversation between two characters. The number of characters in the drama is appropriate, clear relationships, so it can help audiences to understand the main conflict of the story. It is a story that emphasizes the importance of being earnest happening in England, but the issue that reflects from two main characters are still suitable for Today's human. Since it is a drama, exaggerated body expressions and emotions from actors grabbed my attention to a farcical comedy with some thinking of human nature. 

The protagonist Jack Worthing, the guardian of Cecily Cardew, who plays a serious and rigorous role from Cecily's perspective. However, Jack has deceived Cecily that he has a brother in London called Ernest for a long time. When Jack goes to London and pretends to be Ernest, he becomes friends with Algy, falling in love with his cousin Gwendolyn, and gets invented to his home. The story begins with Jack going to Algy's home to make a proposal to Gwendolyn, while Gwendolyn refuses that initially, since the reason for falling in love with Jack is merely attracted by the name Ernest. Moreover, Gwendolyn's mom, Bracknell, is not satisfied with the Jack whose background is not compatible with their family. When Bracknell and Gwendolyn leave, Jack leaves his address to Algy. Algy finds a note and realizes that the content of the note reveals that Ernest may be an alternative identity. However, Algy realizes the similarity between them in having another identity to do everything with a route of retreat. Algy forces Jack to admit that his behavior of using the name Ernest in London is escaping troubles in his hometown. The governess of Cecily Miss Prism is studying with Cecily, while Algy arrives at their home and pretends to be Jack's brother Ernest. It is ridiculous that when Jack wants to abolish the identity of Ernest, Algy has built a good relationship with Cecily. Algy benefits from eloquence and arriving at his home ahead of time, yet Jack feels pissed but he has no chance to cease their relationship and engagement. When Gwendolyn comes to the town to find Jack, she meets with no one but Cecily and they exchange their information about Jack and Algy, finally recognizing the truth of Ernest, then Bracknell also arrives at there; Jack asks Bracknell for the engagement with Gwendolyn once again. Bracknell does not approve the engagement until she accepts the advice from Dr. Chausible about the background of Miss Prism. Miss Prism, Bracknell, and Dr. Chausible talk about an accident many years ago, confirming the identity of Jack. They finally confirm the identity of Jack is Algy's brother and Bracknell approves the engagement of them. The story ends with the happiness of all of them.

Compared to the formerly stage setting of Black Box, the new stage is narrower than before; by contrast, audiences are easy to be immersed in the continuous dialogues between different characters in a few scenes. If the scene is in the left, left audiences would get a better experience than right audiences. Most of the time, there are only two actors on the stage, and audiences are glad to see their performances only. In Act 4, when the whole stage is used, a majority of characters are on stage to act, but main characters still have limited movements, which enhances the status of dialogues in this play. Costumes represent the identity. Servers, master, and doctor distinct from others. Algy has a bright colored costume according to his personality. 

Bright light is from beginning to the end, representing an absurd and comedic story. 

From my perspective, comedy is one of the hardest genres of play. It extremely tests the acting skills of the protagonist. Since the punchlines are mostly placing among sentences, languages and emotions take a big proportion in this play; otherwise, audiences hardly recognize where are those bursting points. The Importance of Being Earnest emphasizes the performance of the story rather than the degree of funny. The unexpected developments of the story may stimulate audiences to engage. Most of the audiences did not know the plot before they came in, including the personalities of the characters. The most highlighted actor is Aaron. His performance exaggerates his character, even though the story goes along with Jack rather than Algy. It is not criticizing that his performance supports the most proportion of comedy. His body movements, tone, and expressions have inserted in so many lines spread all of the play. If the elements of sarcasm of The Importance of Being Earnest is the soil, Aaron's performance cultivates on it; the finished product is consistent and interesting. As an adaptation, it truly reflects the recession and adjustment to each actor depended on their performing styles.

The Importance of Being Earnest is a relatively small production, but it requires more compact cooperation and outstanding monologues. A nice little play has impressed audiences by its performance, but the main idea of the play is not apparent, the changing of scenes, the music, and the monotonous and inconsistent performance at Act 4 are difficult to build an atmosphere of the theme. It seems like most of the characters are exhausted in act 4, the tone of them is not strong enough to give audiences a strong sense of the theme. In short words, audiences and actors give enough feedback to each other, but audiences are not able to give feedback to themselves. Audiences are immersed in a fantastic performance, but they are not immersed in the information conveyed by the core of the story.