Word: algernon
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...title suggests, the plot centers around the name Ernest and the troubles which arise when Jack, a young country gentleman of dubious origin, invents a rakish, city-dwelling brother named Ernest whose escapades provide him with an excuse to venture to London. Similarly, Jack's friend, Algernon, has invented a sickly friend, Bonburry, whose continual illnesses provide him, Algernon, with a reason to avoid dinners with his stuffy aunt, Lady Bracknel. It all gets messy when both Algernon and Jack fall in love with women who insist they can only marry men named Ernest...
...only exception is Finnegan's convincing and zany portrayal of the gay, foppish Algernon, who devours cucumber sandwiches, bread and butter and muffins with dainty relish while seriously maintaining, "When I am in great trouble I refuse everything but food and drink." His candid approach makes the most of other similarly ridiculous lines...
...interesting or useful was Director Francis Cullinan's decision to cast a man, Bill Murphy, as the overbearing Lady Bracknell, Algernon's audacious and obnoxious aunt. If the aim was for some unusual dramatic effect, by the play's end this effect dissipates as Murphy becomes sufficiently convincing as a woman...
...directions are occasionally forgotten because of the extreme humor of the dialogue. But the actual women in The Importance of Being Earnest, Riggs and Worthing's "excessively pretty 18-year-old ward" Cecily Cardew (Melinda McNavy), act like two adolescents in love for the first time. After Cardew leaves Algernon, whom she has just met, she says deridingly that "a momentary separation from someone to whom one has just been introduced is almost unbearable." But their costumes are distasteful and their overly innocent manners crush Wilde's lines to triteness...
...play hits rock bottom in Act H, the rest can only improve. In the more professional third act, the actors seemed to internalize their characters. Cecily and Gwendolyn, for example, argue seriously over trifles--lumps of sugar for their tea and cake--for the first time. Algernon declares with true earnestness about food, "One has to be serious about something in life to be amused." As the intricate plot unravels and the couples happily unite, the laughter subsides and Finnegan declares, "We have now realized the vital importance of being earnest." Maybe he has, but it would have helped...