Kerry Ann Eustice reviews The Importance of Being Earnest

When it first opened in 1895 The Importance of Being Earnest was a social and theatrical sensation. Oscar Wilde was at the height of his powers, so much so the fops of the time would imitate his style and wear the lily corsages he was so fond of. An ensemble you may see Lawrence Llwelyn Bowen sporting today.

But shortly after the production opened Wilde embarked on a libel case which eventually led to him being imprisoned. As a result the play was taken off the stage and it was to be audiences of a different era which would appreciate it more than those in the time it was written.

Wilde, as always, really did get the last laugh though. The Importance of Being Earnest poked enough fun at the seedy Victorian social scene to last many a lifetime. And the sceptical circles which did not accept him in the 1800s ended up looking much worse in the long run.

The Importance of Being Earnest is a tale of mistaken identities, secrets and a stand against sexual double standards in the Victorian era and although it ridicules marriage more than a best man in his wedding speech, it is very much about love.

And it is the play's most unlikely romantic, Algernon, or Algy to his nearest and dearest, who delivers the most insightful musings on the workings of the heart and all the other body parts love controls.

Algy feels: "The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else, if she is plain."

Let's forget the men's so-called wisdom for a minute. What's the one, most important thing a woman looks for in a man? Wealth, social standing, good shoes? No, in Wilde's time, the women of the day wanted their men to be Ernest. This is not a typo. The ideal man for the femme fatales of this play, Gwendolen and Cecily, has to be Ernest a man named Ernest, that is.

It is the farcical details and playing on words which, unlike a best man's speech, make this play incredibly funny.

This production at the Brockley Jack Theatre is performed as if we too were in a Victorian era and is very loyal to the text.

Yet the humour and the behaviour translates so well into contemporary times.

Jack Hughes, who plays Algy, is perfect in the role. His facial expressions think about maintaining a stiff upper lip without your dentures in are just as entertaining as Wilde's immortal one-liners.

With theatre like this, it is truly a travesty Wilde died penniless and alone in Paris. But the sophistication of his jokes, as The Importance of Being Earnest proves, will live longer than any prejudice which wronged him.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Brockley Jack Theatre, Brockley Road, Brockley, now until January 7, Tickets £10/£7, box office 020 8291 6354.