Long Beach Playhouse's The Importance of Being Earnest

[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Screen-Shot-2016-09-15-at-3.33.31-PM.png” credit=”Courtesy Jonathan Davis Lewis Photography” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”From left, Alyssa Garcia (Lane/Merriman), Fiona Austin (Algernon) and Deva Marie Gregory (John Worthing) in Long Beach Playhouse’s The Importance of Being Earnest ” captionposition=”left”] [aesop_character name=”Amy Patton” caption=”Culture Writer” align=”right” force_circle=”off”] Historically, theatre was a man’s world. It was not until the mid-17th century that women were even legally allowed to grace the stage. Fast-forward a few hundred years and the Long Beach Playhouse is flipping the acting patriarchy on its head.
Long Beach Playhouse’s (LBPH) latest production, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, is brilliantly hilarious— and has an all-female cast.
In theory, having only women onstage should not make a difference. An actor is an actor and shall chameleon into any role. But, obviously, it makes a huge difference. It changes the perspective on gender roles and comedy itself, and it makes some satirically misogynistic lines a bit easier to swallow and more ironic (only further extorting the hilarity).
Wilde’s modern farce pokes fun at morality, marriage conventions and, well, the importance of a name (can you guess which one, specifically?). The writing is sharp and cheap in the richest way possible, loaded with puns and inversions to the point that the audience must question the meaning behind anything and everything said. So pay attention, because you might get left behind like a baby in a handbag at a train station.
This production is both cleverly written/adapted as well as physically funny. LBPH saw the opportunities an all-female cast could bring and ran with it. For example, whether for giggles or social commentary, the women cast as female characters are significantly taller than those cast as male characters. So, picture scenes of Amazonian proper ladies being cajoled and wooed by rather short men looking up and doting on them. It is both hilarious to watch the characters act as if the height difference is nonexistent and socially fascinating to reconsider and reconstruct gender roles/expectations right on stage.
And, of course, none of this could be achieved without excellent casting. After the novelty wears off (OK, to an extent), one falls into the plot and believes each actress is who she is portraying, whether it be a sassy butler (Alyssa Garcia) or a disgruntled fellow named Earnest— or Jack in the country— who is played by Deva Marie Gregory. It is Algernon (Fiona Austin) who steals the show, though, with a smile so large you could get lost in it and oozing enough charm to “Bunbury” the whole audience if he felt so inclined.
The play’s allure hits the sweet spot between slapstick and clever wit, leaving the audience with a good laugh and a good ponder on social expectations.
Long Beach Playhouse’s The Importance of Being Earnest runs through Oct. 1. Showtimes are 8pm Fridays and Saturdays and 2pm Sundays. For tickets and more information, visit lbplayhouse.org or call (562) 494-1016.