The Importance of Being Earnest Play Review by Hunter Galindo

This past Friday afternoon, I had the opportunity to catch our theater departments rendition of
The Importance of Being Earnest written by Oscar Wilde, which I found to be extremely well
put together and really funny. For such a small cast, they did a very exceptional job of
performing their characters with depth and accuracy, along with moving the plot in a smooth and
fluid manner, and delivering their comedic lines with the right diction and attitude. Ill start with
Dayne Fernandezs character, John Worthing. Dayne did an amazing job portraying the double
life that John Worthing lives; he made it clear that although John Worthing is a character who
usually tries to abide by the truth, and presents himself in an honest and respectable manner,
he is capable of being cunningly deceptive in order to get what he wants for his own pleasure,
i.e lying to Gwendolyn about his name for the sake of keeping her, and for creating his own fake
brother as an excuse to visit Gwendolyn. And even though he can be deceitful, Dayne does a
great job in executing Johns displeasure and guiltiness about his lies, he knows that hes an
honest and well-respected man and hates that his white lies fly in the face of who is truly is.
Next, Ben Canos character, Algernon Moncrieff. Ben does a spectacular job of portraying
Algernons laid-back and carefree spirit; the contrast between Algernon and John is highlighted
by Bens ability to capture Algernons nonchalant views on everything from marriage to matters
of bunburying. Ben is able to perfectly execute Algernons flighty seriousness on all issues and
his impulsive and rash decisions, for example, telling Cecily without a second thought that he
was Johns brother in order to get her attention and interest. Ben is good at representing
Algernons lack of thoughtfulness by his uncaring attitude of consequences, such as his lying to
Cecily about his relations to John and about his name, which like John, he presumes is Ernest.
The overall production of the show was excellent and very enjoyable, but it did have a few
hiccups; for instance, I was surprised at the number of times actors had stumbled and tripped
on their lines, it had been closing night when I watched the show, and I expected it to nearly
flawless, secondly, the backstage had made a ton of noise whenever someone downstage
moved too quickly or lively, this made it hard to hear what the following lines were, and lastly,
along with the sound the stage made, I found that the majority of sound effects drowned out the
voices of characters, which left me confused and lost on the matter that they were discussing for
a few seconds. I adored the set, it was well constructed and most certainly served its purpose; I
liked how both the upstage and downstage sets were used continuously throughout the play,
half-way through the first act, I was worried that the downstage set wouldnt be touched or used
at all. Another thing I really liked about the set, was the easy transition it allowed for when
scenes were acted on either upstage or downstage, I also like how the lighting changed
depending on where the action was centered at. The costumes were perfectly crafted for the
time and place this play was intended for, and for the characters they were made for. The theme
of this play was the constraints of morality. Throughout the play, the idea of what is socially
acceptable is continuously brought up, along with the question of what ones own social stature
will allow them to enjoy in life, mainly brought up in the case of significant others. Overall, the
play was extremely entertaining and really funny (I laughed many times), kudos to the cast and
crew, they were all phenomenal.