Charming staging of "The Importance of Being Earnest" captures the essence of Wilde

Theater Review |

Always relevant, Oscar Wilde's more perceptive jokes and epigrams can make you feel as if someone's reading your mind.

That's especially true if a crowd is connecting with Wilde's humor, as many do at the Village Theatre's bubbly, splendidly cast production of his ever-popular 1895 comedy, "The Importance of Being Earnest."

As usual, the play draws much of its comic tension from the antics of two grown men who pretend to be someone who doesn't exist. Jack Worthing (Paul Morgan Stetler) poses as the fictional Ernest, and so does Algernon (Jason Collins), who also has an imaginary pal named Bunbury.

By the time it was half over, a single word -- in this case, "stockbroker" -- was almost enough to bring down the house. Maybe you had to be there, maybe it was just an unrepeatable matter of context, but it was one of those live-wire moments in the theater that's both a surprise and a fulfillment.

The director, Brian Yorkey, makes no overt attempts to force the play to comment on our current predicament, but he does keep the Victorian setting and uses it to suggest the sunset of an empire -- and a society that's almost too frivolous to last.

A vision in cartoonish purple, Laura Kenny dominates the first of three acts as the tyrannical Lady Bracknell, who cross-examines Jack. She does all but gloat as she confronts and undermines the spectacle of confusion that follows. Just as impressive are Jennifer Lee Taylor as Gwendolen (Jack's intended) and Angela DiMarco as Cecily (who conquers Algernon).

There are no weak spots in this cast, which will move to Everett next month. Nor did the Issaquah production team skimp on sets and costumes, which capture the period while lightly poking fun at it.

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com