Theatre Review: ...Earnest?

There aren't many shows that make me genuinely laugh, so it has to be pretty damn funny to have me chuckling throughout. So, hats off to the Say it Again, Sorry team for landing this Edinburgh Fringe favourite right on the madcap mark and hitting my laugh-out-loud button again and again, and again. 

...Earnest? follows a small scale production of The Importance of Being Earnest as it gradually falls apart at the seams. When the lead role repeatedly misses his entrance, chaos ensues. The show's stressed director Simon appears in a flap, busking his way through to a quick solution, he's not in the building? Er. Um. He's got a lot riding on this. HSBC won't be happy. Do we have any volunteers with acting experience?

There are some volunteers(ish), phew! Witty casting questions are had and Simon makes a selection. Our new Earnest is welcomed to the stage! The Fawlty Towers esque professional actor cast will help her through right? The show must go on.

What happens next is The Importance of Being Earnest brought to you through a series of increasingly ridiculous improv infused skits, as the cast try to guide the new additions through the script, except when it's been dropped all over the stage.

Parallels have to be drawn with The Play That Goes Wrong as it's a similar slapstick rich world where everything is going wrong. Whisky has got into the stage drinks. Props are in the wrong places and Algernon can't improvise. One calamity after another needs new solutions from flustered director Simon. The key twist which makes it arguably funnier is we the audience are enlisted as the fix, literally, for an increasing number of urgent cast replacements, auditioned live from amongst us.

It's a little bit game show with all the scene based challenges for the contestant like recruits we cheer on. It's also a little bit standup with the audience banter, heckle dodging and sizing up of likely candidates by our director come cabaret compere Simon. Yet, love for the original story is maintained, while sending up all things thesp as the madness ramps up. Great fun.

Now, it clearly takes some skill to deliver both character roles and gently steer unpredictable recruits without things completely imploding, needing a lot of crafting when you think about it. Some great character roles are on show, including the bourbon sipping stage big gun Lady Bracknell and her increasingly squiffy predatory daughter Gwendolen.

There is the easily unsettled Algernon who has to play everything in the exact order as rehearsed, and his manservant Lane who ends up covering an increasing of roles at breakneck speed with impeccable comic timing. Not to mention Simon's much put upon assistant Joel, who mimes his nervous energy as he scampers about trying to deliver scripts and show merchandise. The cast were all excellent, at both roles and coaxing the anxious newbies, to make sure the that the show does indeed go on, all the way to the end, somehow.

Finally, as the grinning audience filed out into the cool Nottingham night, we wondered whether some or all of the volunteers were actual volunteers? No, there they are, a bunch of them heading for taxis in a bit of a daze. Gosh. That's quite a gamble every night! Every show a bit different.

If you have ever seen The Importance of Being Earnest whether on stage or screen, this is absolutely worth catching.

...Earnest? plays at Nottingham's Theatre Royal until Saturday 26 April 2025.