The whole production is a delicious confection: a perfect example of how light comedy and Wilde in particular should be produced, directed, designed and acted.
The costumes and sets were delicious: the sets were light and airy. like a perfect souffle, and the costumes were flawless...especially those for Gwendolyn and Algernon and Lady Bracknell (of course!). Gwendolyn's and Lady B's hats are outrageous, which is as it should be!
Brian Bedford is a treasure. His performance should be seen over and over again by anyone interested in the craft of acting. He doesn't go for the big vocal effects everyone remembers (and expects) from Dame Edith Evans in the 1952 movie, like "A haaaaan-baaaaaag?" On the contrary, his Lady Bracknell seems utterly perplexed by Jack's story. It simply does not fit into the narrow world she lives in. Bedford finds each of every one of Wilde's witty distinctions and imbues them with just the right soupcon of irony, sardonic humor and occasional wistfulness. And his stop on a dime and reverse direction reactions to Jack's income and Cecily's inheritance tell you more about the society she lives in than any Lady Bracknell I have ever seen.
Santino Fontana and David Furr and excellent as Algy and Jack, respectively, better in the second and third acts than in the difficult first scene, in which those two actors (and Tim McDonald as a perfect butler) must create Wilde's artificial world out of petty arguments over cucumber sandwiches and the lies they tell to get out of social engagements.
In the end, I found Fontana's Algernon oddly adorable and Furr's Jack oddly sexy (especially in his very becoming mourning suit), and I could completely see why Cecily and Gwendolyn would want them as husbands.
Sara Topham's Gwendolyn looked beautiful in her hats and dresses (an important part of acting Gwendolyn), and she was appropriately chilly and self-centered, making you feel that she would become her mother much sooner than the "150 years" Jack worries about. She was flawless at delivering the Wildean epigrams that many a Gwedolyn stumbles over. She has as many of them as Algy has, but since his character is somewhat of a stand-in for Wilde, they are easily incorporated into the character. But with Gwendolyn, the actress must make these bons mots things a young woman would say. Topham did this with flying colors.
I adored Charlotte Parry as Cecily. She took the audience on a journey from Cecily's innocence to Cecily being Gwendolyn's equal in the bitch-fest and back to Cecily's (pose of?) innocence. She was delightful and funny. She completely saw through Santino Fontana's Algernon AND wanted to marry him simultaneously. It is a delightful performance.
Which leaves Paxton Whitehead and Dana Ivey as the Reverend Chausable and Miss Prism. Each of them is a brilliant performer, and each makes the most of every syllable. I left the theater wishing that Wilde--or E.F. Benson!--had written a sequel about the marriage of Miss Prism to the Reverend just so I could come back and watch them together again.
This thread is about this wonderful production, which everyone who loves theater would be lucky to see. I hope we can keep the thread about the play and not about a new board member who craves attention. This is the kind of production you will remember, years from now, and say how glad you were you saw it.
And for the board member who inexplicably asks this question about every new production: Yes, there is a show curtain. (And footlights too.)
