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Malvern Theatres Young Company Presents: The Importance of Being Earnest
9th August 2022 - 12th August 2022
£5Event Navigation
Following their successful productions of Sophocles’s Electra (2021) and Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood (2019) Malvern Theatres Young Company returns this summer with Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
Subtitled ‘a trivial comedy for serious people’ Wilde’s play is a biting satire on manners, matrimony and misbehaviour in late-Victorian high society. None of the author’s trademark wit and sarcasm is lost in director Nic Lloyd’s streamlined adaptation, which leaves us in no doubt why The Importance of Being Earnest remains amongst our most popular and enduring comedies.
Established in 2012, Malvern Theatres Young Company gives aspiring young actors the opportunity to perform in a professional environment. The Importance of Being Earnest will be their 15th production and once again opens in Malvern before transferring to the Edinburgh Fringe for six further performances.
“This young company demonstrates the strength of theatre by allowing the beauty of words to shine through … the various characters are very clear with such a strong and capable ensemble – all of the young actors are given an opportunity to demonstrate their skill which they do with an ability well beyond their years, powerfully engaging the storytelling on and around the stage” – (The Edinburgh Guide, on Under Milk Wood, 2019)
Running Time: 1 hour 20 minutes (no interval)
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Event Reviews
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John Phillpott
OSCAR Wilde’s greatest dramatic achievement is very much an old friend of mine.
First encountered during that long lost ‘O’ Level summer, the play seems to have punctuated my life... in fact, I’ve probably lost count of the times I’ve luxuriated in the wit of this most celebrated of playwrights.
Nevertheless, I have to say that this fresh look by Malvern Theatres Young Company is right up there with the best of them.
Yes, really. For to be sure, they demonstrate a professionalism that belies the tenderness of their years, responding well under the steady directorial hand of Nic Lloyd, who has moulded this classic satire on Edwardian manners into a contemporary masterpiece – testimony to what good theatre should be all about.
Lloyd has certainly done the odd tweak here and there, but I’m sure Oscar wouldn’t mind that much.
Wisely doing away with an interval, the director’s handling of the dialogue ensures it flows with ease, a well-oiled machine that never once stalls or falters.
Edward Kirby is magnificent as the immortal John Worthing, his diction and timing a perfect counterfoil to the more hyperactive Algernon Moncrieff, played with a silky sophistication by Harry Pyne.
Then comes that Lady Bracknell moment, the one we’ve all been waiting for, as Ellie Ricci, fully rigged in period clobber, sails into view like a 19th century tea clipper making its final run up the English Channel.
Aged only 20 in real life, she ages half a century in a second to deliver a performance that would make even Maggie Smith’s Downton dowager beaming with lofty approval.
There are also some fine performances from Elizabeth Anne Jones (Gwendolen Fairfax), Lexi Henry (Cecily Cardew) and Mia Stevens, who effortlessly turns in a super prim Miss Prism.
But hey – let’s hear it for the multi-tasking Rhys Harris-Clarke, who smoothly demonstrates that he can flit from flunkey to Canon Chasuble in the time it takes to say ‘heretical views of the Anabaptists’.
This breathtakingly talented young company of actors will be taking this to the Edinburgh Fringe next week, where they will certainly build on the success they have enjoyed this week at Malvern.
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The View From The Stalls
The 2022 show from the Malvern Theatres Young Company, under the usual expertise of Nic Lloyd, is Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and with 7 young actors, a table and a couple of chairs, the stage is set for an enjoyable and impressive evening's entertainment.
As in previous years, the play is performed "in the round" in the Forum where the audience is on three or four sides rather like a wrestling ring - this is always an interesting experience as the actors have to perform equally to, in this case, three sets of people.
The age of the actors ranges from 19 to 23 but they already have a wealth of experience both with the MTYC and other companies.
Company stalwart Rhys Harris-Clarke with around a dozen shows under his belt plays the roles of the Rev Canon Chasuble, manservant Lane and butler Merriman (just watch his hilarious facial expressions which tell a story of their own!) and kicks off the show with a little dancing accompanied by, well, no-one really!
Edward Kirby is confident and mature in his role of John (or is it Earnest?) Worthing, a young man from the country who is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax and also is hilarious with his mimicking of his aunt and his attempts to force acceptance of his engagement to someone who will only love a man by the name of Earnest. The other male character - Algernon - is played by the oldest member of the troupe, Henry Pyne, equally at home in the role of another young gentleman from London, this time the nephew of Lady Bracknell and who is in love with Cecily Cardew.
On the female side of the family are, of course, Lady Bracknell (Ellie Ricci in her first MTYC appearance), very much a society lady and dressed accordingly, Elizabeth Anne Jones as her daughter Gwendoline, Lexi Henry plays Cecily and Mia Stevens takes on the character of Miss Prism - all play their roles superbly, even if Lady "a handbag!" Bracknell is a very young 20 years old!
The show is a very pointed satire on Victorian values towards love and marriage and the ways those morals are being tested by the new generation. Had the show been performed by a professional company of actors, they would have done no better than this talented group who were faultless in their rendition of Wilde's play.
The concept of doing this in the round, works very well and allows a flexibility which will be useful in other venues for the show will not only be staged at the Malvern Forum. After the shows here - running until Friday - they are off to Edinburgh to perform at the Fringe, which will undoubtedly give them a mass of useful experience.
So another successful show for the MYTC and especially welcome as it a light satirical comedy. What was also nice to see was participants of previous shows turning up to give their support. Indeed, Toby Burchell will be returning to the Malvern stage over the festive season in A Christmas Carol whilst others continue to perform in Ben Mowbray's Our Star Theatre Company.
One thing to note - the evening shows start at 7pm sharp - something which quite a few people apparently hadn't noticed...
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Richard Edmonds
It is a rare and splendid thing, these days to see an Oscar Wilde play with spontaneity and a certain amount of style. Malvern Theatres Young Company, who are presenting the play at Malvern will be taking their production up to the Edinburgh Festival within a few days, and although several things need adjusting, the shape of the piece is there, and judging by the performances I saw on the first night, there is much to delight an Edinburgh audience.
Nothing could be further from the truth than the all too familiar assertion that Wilde's play is an insubstantial comedic bubble, a dramatic fantasy filled with stylish writing but signifying very little. As these enthusiastic young actors showed us, Wilde's characters have a deep-seated craving to know who exactly they are. At one significant moment, Jack Worthing asks plaintively,"Who am I?". Added to this, there is a continual concern with appearances --"Algy has nothing, but he looks everything", all of which may be Wilde's acid comment of the social spectacle which surrounded him, where love was sold in a marriage market, and young women were told to disregard love in favour of wealth and a position in the upper-class social hierarchy. Wilde's subjects were money, sociology, economics and the prevailing class system and he set about demolishing 19th century social and moral attitudes in his career as a revolutionary moralist, who finally paid the price.
In this context Wilde overstepped the mark, and it was probably his mockery of the social class he saw around him, which may well have led to their final revenge where Wilde was imprisoned and his valiant satires ceased, until revived by another generation, hence this very good production at Malvern, which shows Wilde's mastery of the art of theatre comedy, setting him up there forever with
Congreve, Farquhar, Sheridan and Coward.Edward Kirby, who gives us an outstanding performance as John Worthing, is nicely matched by Henry Pyne as Algernon Moncrieff, the two actors manage to contrast their personalities as they smile, squabble, rationalise their ambiguous situation, and generally give the play the impetus it requires as a top class comedy. Elsewhere Gwendolyn ( Elizabeth Anne Jones) and Cecily (Lexi Jones) spoke well ( in an evening when lines were frequently inaudible) and were totally believable with an elegance Wilde might well have admired.
Ellie Ricci, who is 20. years old, had the most difficult part of all as Wilde's ultra-snobbish ageing martinet, Lady Bracknell, a woman not to be trifled with and whose word is law. Ricci has some of the best lines not only in the play, but in the whole of 19th century drama----" a handbag" being just one of them. I admired her courage, but she is on the right path, although at this stage needs to slow down, in order to give her words their ultimate impact. Nic Lloyd directed with his usual skill in a set comprising three garden chairs, a metal garden table and some black drapes, which cut out interiors, gardens and everything else. But one must remember all this must travel to Edinburgh, hence the sparseness is inevitable.
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Euan Rose - Malvern Observer
Actors have long held Oscar Wilde in almost the same esteem as the Stratford Bard – the revered playwright is acknowledged to be a theatrical challenge in which many a seasoned professional has fallen on their swords.
Consequently, ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest’ is a brave choice for Malvern Theatres’ Young Company to select as their Edinburgh Fringe production.
Elizabeth Anne Jones was suitably teasing as Gwendolen Fairfax and again her hand gestures were a delightful adjunct.
Lexi Henry made the most of the few lines she has as Cecily Cardew and Mia Stevens looks and sounds the business as Miss Prism – I felt she has more to give which will no doubt be forthcoming during the run.
Rhys Harris-Clarke is of course a young Malvern legend and no production would be complete without his beaming smile. Here we get a veritable ensemble as he plays the Rev Canon Chasuble, Lane and DD Merriman, all of whom he gives a splash of wackiness too.
Lloyd was quite right to take an axe rather than a scalpel to the script.
Anything performed in the round – or as in this case the avenue – has to rely on actors carrying the story without the benefit of a set. Here the minimalist approach adds not detracts and our imaginations do the rest.
Very nice frocks from Bridget Lloyd add colour, time and place to the sparse black space.
Overall this is a bold production and with everything tightened up a few notches it all bodes well for a successful run in Edinburgh.
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Julie Bellerby - Fairy Powered Productions
This production was performed by Malvern Theatres Young Company. Established in 2012 this group allows young people between the ages of 8 – 25 to perform in a professionally staged theatre.
This much loved play by Oscar Wilde, adapted and Directed by Nic Lloyd, was performed by 7 up and coming students of Acting, who, I am sure, will have amazing careers in the theatre.
It appeared they were slightly unrehearsed, but with only 2 weeks to bring the performance together, did an admiral production of this play.
Special mentions of the acting ability of both Rhys Harris-Clarke who played the Rev Canon Chasuble, Lane and Merriman, and Ellie Ricci playing Lady Bracknell were strong in their roles with belief of their characters from the start.
Edward Kirby, playing John Worthing and Henry Pyne playing Algernon Moncrieff worked well bouncing off each other, with a very enthusiastic ‘fight’, which struggled to make this believable whilst the audience were on three sides of the performance arena.
The nerves did show at the beginning of the play by a couple of actors, who grew in confidence as the production continued. I think some of the comedic lines were delivered too quickly and the audience did not pick up on some of them, so were lost in the speed of delivery.
The Stage was minimalistic, with the characters moving from chair to chair constantly, so all sides of the audience could see and hear. I thought this was not yet quite right and should have more thought, before moving to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival next week.
Costumes were perfect, designed by Bridget Lloyd and depicted each character well.
Overall, this shows the ability of each of the young Actors who will, I’m sure, grow in confidence each night, to provide an entertaining play of the most importance!
