by Terrance Mc Arthur

Can a 130-year-old comedy still make people laugh? The Good Company Players have proved it can with its production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, playing at the 2nd Space Theatre through April 19.

Jack (Ross Bookout) has invented a ne’er-do-well brother Ernest, who lives in London, so he can shuttle between town and country to avoid unwanted social obligations. He is now engaged to Gwendolen (Erin Brown, Kaitlin Dean substituted on opening night) so he wants to kill off the non-existent Ernest, but his fiancée only wants to marry a man named Ernest, because she trusts the name. Her mother, Lady Bracknell (Mary Piona) objects to the marriage, because the groom-to-be is a foundling with no known ancestry. Jack/Ernest’s friend Algernon (Alex Vaux) discovers the dual identities, and he has a made-up friend of his own. Algernon adopts the Ernest persona and heads for the country to woo Jack’s ward, Cecily (Jessica Martin)—and that’s only the first of three acts in a play Wilde subtitled A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.

Normally, the technical staff of a production is only mentioned at the end of a review, but this show is such a display of theatrical wizardry, these people need to be celebrated. Denise Graziani, this production’s director, has filled the cast with a combination of familiar and fresh new faces. The play moves at a brisk clip, with nary a creak. Wilde’s improbable farce is filled with his witticisms and beloved characters. David Pierce’s mahogany-and-gilt setting amplifies the leap into the past that captures the minds of the audience. Ginger Kay Lewis-Reeds costumes deserve applause at every entrance, from Jack’s country arrival in true-to-period full mourning attire with a five-inch-wide black hatband that trails down his back, to Lady Bracknell’s glorious third-act ensemble.

Bookouts‘ GCP debut is a winner as he struts across the 2nd Space stage. He takes the outrageous without question, yet he blows up at minor inconveniences. Dean portrays the prim demeanor of the upper class that expects everything will be done to her satisfaction, without showing any signs of becoming a Bridezilla.

Vaux has an indolent air with shades of George Sanders, and he gets to speak some of Wilde’s best acerbic lines. Martin is frothy in wide-eyed innocence and blonde cascades of ringlets.

Piona, who has lit up GCP productions from Driving Miss Daisy to Blithe Spirit with her presence, takes on a role that has featured such famous performers as Edith Evans, Judi Dench, and even Geoffrey Rush and David Suchet, and she makes it her own—an upper-crust matron, insisting on platters of tiny cucumber sandwiches with all the snootiness of late-Victorian England packed into a tiny powerhouse.

Gordon Moore’s aplomb as the local vicar elevates the part, while Valerie Munoz and Julia Reimer alternate as Miss Prism, a governess with a past. Henry Montelongo is arch and condescending as the London butler who knows many of “Ernest’s” secrets. Thomas Estrada, Jr. is the smooth, competent, unruffled butler in the country, and Seren Howe serves as backstage crew, in a maid’s costume for intermission set changes.

Take a trip to 1895. Indulge in a play that was chastised for not having a message in a time when realism and plays with underlying themes took over the stage. It was still a popular success, until the scandals of Oscar Wilde’s flamboyant lifestyle caused the Victorian equivalent of today’s “being cancelled.”

The 2nd Space Theatre is at 928 E. Olive Ave, Fresno. For tickets and further information, contact gcplayers.com, or call (559) 266-9494. Comic magic awaits you.

If you love local theatre, be sure to check out Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, which features mysteries read by local actors. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and also on podbean.

Check out more theatre reviews & other local entertainment articles in our Arts & Entertainment section. You can also find more theatre coming up on KRL’s Local Theatre event page.

Terrance V. Mc Arthur worked for the Fresno County Public Library for three decades. He is retired, but not retiring. A storyteller, puppeteer, writer, actor, magician, basketmaker, and all-around interesting person, his goal is to make life more unusual for everyone he meets.