Review:The Importance of Being Earnest at The Elms

Cameron Buchanan (Algernon) lords it over Jazzy Axton (Cecily) and Arumia Hayles (Gwendolyn). Photo / File

The Importance of Being Earnest
Twice as Good Productions
The Elms
January 31 to February 11

It was the evening of the blue moon, super moon and blood moon.

Down here on earth, in the garden of The Elms, another conjunction was taking place and it was almost as heavenly.

Some seriously good acting, brilliant production, glorious costumes, inspired staging and picturesque setting converged to create one of the most enjoyable evenings out in Tauranga this summer at Wednesday's opening night of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Director and producer Suzy Sampson is known for her meticulous attention to style and detail, and the welcoming ambience of the Roaring Twenties was perfect in every way from the moment the audience stepped into the grounds of our city's most historic property.

As the play got under way, the audience quickly warmed to the clever dialogue and fast-flowing witticisms of Oscar Wilde's most popular work.

Earnest is the play that has brought us such delightful Wildean lines as "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness" and "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train".

The story, which Wilde himself subtitled "a trivial comedy for serious people", revolves around the subterfuges of John Worthing (Michael Hayles), who has invented a fictitious brother Ernest to provide an excuse to leave his home in the country and visit London, and his city-based friend Algernon Moncrieff (Cameron Buchanan), who has a similar wheeze of inventing a friend named Bunbury to visit in the country from time to time.

When the two friends fall in love with, respectively, Gwendolen Fairfax (Arumia Hayles) and Cecily Cardew (Jazzy Axton), both must brace for a storm of fury to descend on their heads from the formidable Lady Bracknell (Sarah Bate).

Bate trod honourably in the path the immortal Dame Edith Evans made her own in the 1952 film version of the play, her voice veritably dripping with contempt as she interrogated Worthing over his story about being found as a baby left in a handbag at the left luggage department of Victoria Station.

As twilight faded into darkness, the outdoor setting became even more magical with elegant lighting illuminating the scene.

It's not difficult to see why professional actress Sampson, who pioneered the successful outdoor Shakespeare productions at Te Puna Quarry Park, was captivated by The Elms as the city's most enchanting setting in which to stage Wilde's happy comedy of manners.

If you wish to pamper yourself a little or feel peckish, there is a wine bar and food stall on site, with scrumptious picnic hampers available from Lemongrass Catering. Oscar would surely have approved.

Nor do you have to wait for another blue moon to join in the fun. The show runs until February 11 and tickets are on sale at ticketdirect.co.nz.

- Reviewed by Paul Chapman