09 Sep 2024
After a summer of hits at the Roman Theatre Festival, Deborah Heath can’t hide her disappointment when a play misses the mark…
I am a huge fan of the Pantaloons’ work. I have seen them bring small cast, quirky new twists to classic tales such as ‘Robin Hood’ this summer and ‘Comedy of Errors’ last. What sets them apart from other companies doing the same kind of thing is their comedic energy, well-adapted scripts and spot-on physicality. Staging ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, one of the funniest plays ever written, was surely a recipe for success. I was certainly extremely excited.
I was pleased to see live music being used throughout. The cast played a ukulele and guitar as well as a good selection of percussion. The score mainly consisted of one song being adapted for two or three situations e.g. ‘It’s fun to have a Bunbury’.
It was amusing and tunefully performed but I was expecting a bit more variety – perhaps four completely different songs.
The percussion was used brilliantly throughout as sound effects and to represent the emotions of the characters. I particularly liked the Cajon pattern imitating Jack’s heartbeat during his suitor interrogation and the bells for the rattling tea set.
However, there were a few points at which a character would say “smash” and it seemed a bit odd that a cymbal wasn’t used considering their approach to the rest of the sound effects.
As usual, the Pantaloons had selected a strong cast under director Mark Hayward.
All were adept at not only portraying their characters but involving the audience in the action expertly, including an “A Handbaaag”-saying competition. These four actors played two or three roles each including a main and supporting role.
The script had been extremely well adapted in this regard, I assume by Mark Hayward – great work. In terms of the acting, I particularly liked James Alston’s cheeky Algernon, Harry Drummond’s sincere Jack, and Medeline Hatt’s enthusiastic Cecily.
Hannah Pryal was fantastic as both Gwendolyn and older Miss Prism, the latter of which she played as a jolly Yorkshire woman. Madeline Hatt’s Lady Bracknell was expertly realised vocally which is hard to achieve for such a young actor. However, what broke the spell for me was the clown style walk she had been encouraged to use. The exaggerated “Ha-hah-hah-hah” laughter used by some of the actors also landed awkwardly at times.
Now, here I’m afraid, is the root of my problem with this production. In their programme, the Pantaloons explain: “Our main aim is to reinvent classic literature as postmodern folk theatre…using contemporary references, intertextuality, pop-culture pastiche, audience interaction and a wide array of popular theatre forms clowning and commedia dell’arte.”
Now, I am not a purist – I love all of these strategies and have seen the Pantloons rock an auditorium using them in the past. In this show, I have to say the use of audience participation was great fun, the pop culture references only annoyed me because I still sit in the Blur rather than Oasis camp!
However, the physicality (usually spot on), specifically the clowning which works well in a bawdy Shakespeare comedy felt at odds with Wilde’s witty comedy of manners.
An example of this is the beautiful scene where Cecily and Gwendolyn get to know each other over afternoon tea.
There is a very clear dislike on both sides and what Wilde has skilfully achieved is the comedy that comes from our heroines NOT being able to express these emotions due to the societal restrictions of the time.
Therefore, to see the two actors jumping around throwing punches as if in a boxing ring took away the humour. I wonder if this arose from a rehearsal technique to establish motivation but to put it in the show probably wasn’t a wise choice. I will concede that there is farce in the story so I do understand why the Pantaloons wanted to try this exaggerated approach to many moments in this show but it just seemed to be taken too far for this script.
A Coward play could have taken it but not a Wilde.
To conclude, this has been one of the hardest reviews I have ever had to write due to my high regard for The Pantaloons. ‘Robin Hood’ was one of the highlights of the Roman Theatre Festival to me but I’m afraid its cousin ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is closer to the bottom.
All photos by Will Gillham.
