THE BASICS: 1894 Comedy/drama by Oscar Wilde, directed by Josephine Hogan for the Irish Classical Theatre Company. Plays weekends through February 9th at the Andrews Theatre. The play, which appears to have been trimmed down a bit, runs approximately two hours with its single intermission.
THUMBNAIL SKETCH: The play takes place in the Rural Midlands of England, at the end of the nineteenth century. Lord Illingworth, a typical Wildean dandy, decides to promote a humble but promising bank clerk, Gerald Arbuthnot, to the position of his personal secretary. By an incredible coincidence, Gerald is, in fact, his own illegitimate son, the product of a dalliance of days long past. We soon discover that neither of Gerald’s parents has been keeping track of the other. Rachel, his mother, is the first to put the pieces together, and finds herself in the unenviable position of trying to put the kibosh on a relationship that seems to be in her son’s best interest. Who will prevail—the true blue mom (a woman of no importance) or the flashy, long-absent cad of a dad?
THE PLAY, THE PLAYERS AND THE PRODUCTION: A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, generally held to be the weakest of Wilde’s stage works, is actually two plays in one. For an act and a half, it is a virtual Epigram-fest, with a variety of society types standing about like statues, cracking wise. Then, almost out of the blue, the play takes a hard right into creaky, old-school melodrama, and stays there til its conclusion. What a weird, unstable combination of elements this is!
In the main, the work is like bad Shaw, made worse by the fact that Wilde was no deep dish thinker. There are some beautiful verbal nuggets, to be sure, but one must put up with a great deal of chaff. Time and time again, Wilde goes for the easy laugh, reworking an “old saw” simply by inserting the opposite word to the one we are all expecting at the end. Listen for this when (if) you go. The melodramatic ending is quite interesting, especially in light of when the play was written, but I really can’t discuss it without giving too much away…
The ICTC has employed a large cast of local thespians, some esteemed, with mixed results. Vincent O’Neill commands the stage like no other as Lord I., but he is, in truth, a bit long in the tooth for this role, and less than convincing as a randy seducer. By contrast, youthful Jen Stafford is just too surface and brittle to be very effective as Lord I’s opposite number, Mrs. Allonby. Eileen Dugan makes a good, strong Mrs. Arbuthnot. Kathleen Betsko Yale as the sharp tongued dowager, Lady Caroline (think Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey) and Kelli Bocock-Natale as the ditsy Lady Hunstanton (think Margaret Dumont in the Marx Bros. films) are both solid assets. And kudos to Diane Curley, who enriches the minor character of Lady Stutfield with distinctive delivery and mannerisms.
Director Josephine Hogan, apparently a huge fan of Oscar Wilde, has done nothing to enliven the very stiff and starchy first act and a half, which literally begs for some action/motion. Not surprisingly, my companion slept through a good deal of the Epigram-fest. As for the disparate accents employed by the various actors, the less said the better. Clearly, this is not the ICTC’s finest hour. Still, if you go in with low expectations, you may find this late Victorian curiosity a pleasant enough experience.
Lead image: Eileen Dugan as Mrs. Arbuthnot and Vincent O’Neill as Lord Illingworth.
Inset image: Jenn Stafford as Mrs. Allonby and Vincent O’Neill as Lord Illingworth.
Photos are by Gene Witkowski.
All things considered, I’m giving A Woman of No Importance the following rating:
*HERD OF BUFFALO (Notes on the Rating System)
ONE BUFFALO: This means trouble. A dreadful play, a highly flawed production, or both. Unless there is some really compelling reason for you to attend (i.e. you are the parent of someone who is in it), give this show a wide berth.
TWO BUFFALOS: Passable, but no great shakes. Either the production is pretty far off base, or the play itself is problematic. Unless you are the sort of person who’s happy just going to the theater, you might look around for something else.
THREE BUFFALOS: I still have my issues, but this is a pretty darn good night at the theater. If you don’t go in with huge expectations, you will probably be pleased.
FOUR BUFFALOS: Both the production and the play are of high caliber. If the genre/content are up your alley, I would make a real effort to attend.
FIVE BUFFALOS: Truly superb–a rare rating. Comedies that leave you weak with laughter, dramas that really touch the heart. Provided that this is the kind of show you like, you’d be a fool to miss it!