THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. By Oscar Wilde. National Theatre Live screening. Directed by Max Webster. Starring Ncuti Gatwa, Hugh Skinner, Ronke Adekoluejo, Sharon D Clarke and Eliza Scanlen.
MEGAN CHORITZ reviews
This is an unmistakeably high camp take on this classic work. The very opening is a piano playing, drag dance and strip sequence as a prologue. Choreographed movements, over articulation, and general send up through style, heightened emotions, indulgent costumes, a ridiculous and hilarious rose garden in the second act, and the final vogue ball style of the curtain call all make this a giant queer romp in which the story of the baby in the handbag, left at the railway station is revealed.
I laughed readily and out loud in the beginning. It was fun, and flippant, and quite over the top. The added sexuality of Ronke Adekoluejo as Gwendolyn and the absolute camp of Ncuti Gatwa as Algernon were fun and funny and ridiculous. Lady Bracknell (Sharon D Clark) was perfectly imposing and gigantic, with a dryness in her booming voice that stopped the others in their tracks.
Really fabulous
The inclusion of modern musical references was delicious, and naughty, and the performances were all really fabulous.
But I got bored. Almost three hours of high camp nonsense is a bit of an ask of an audience, especially with a play that is so tediously familiar. By the time it was revealed that Miss Prism had accidentally switched a manuscript for a baby and left him in a bag at the station, I had ants in my pants.
While I am all for reviving the classics and having huge fun with them, I would have preferred an edited version of it. And then it would have been a great, just for kicks, hour and a half of silliness.
I am genuinely always excited to see the National Theatre Live screenings, but this one felt like a perfectly executed production of an agonisingly safe choice.
What: The Importance of Being Earnest
Where and when: National Theatre Live screenings at Ster-Kinekor Rosebank Nouveau and Cresta in Johannesburg | Ster-Kinekor Brooklyn in Pretoria | Ster-Kinekor V&A Waterfront in Cape Town on 30 and 31 August, and 2 September 2025
Tickets: www.sterkinekor.com
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