The Importance of Being Earnest
On the cool night of November 1st, I decided to attend the Cheshire Academy varsity production of "The Importance of Being Earnest." The comedic play was written by Oscar Wilde in the late 1800s, and portrayed Victorian London as a setting. The crew of the Cheshire Academy production consisted of producer Mrs. Jennifer Guarino, assistant director Mrs. Allison Bass-Riccio, Production manager Mr. Aidan McBreen, set manger Mr. Antonio Alfaiate, Scenery artist Peter Deng, and Lighting consultant Jack Cheng.
"The Importance of Being Earnest" tells a story of protagonist Jack Worthing, and his best friend Algernon Montcrief. Both men live double lives by calling themselves "Earnest" to mainly impress people, and also entertain themselves from their more boring real lives. In the play, irony is carried out to be one of the major themes. The irony of the play is that the name "Earnest" is to be given to an honest man, and both of these men are anything but honest. This plot puts together for an enjoyable play where conflict is inevitable. Both men have love interests, and Jack wins over his love, Gwendolyn Fairfax solely with having his name being Earnest. It is important to know that Gwendolyn only cares that she is marrying a man with the name Earnest. When Algernon falls in loves with Jack's wade Cecily Cardew he too uses his Earnest identity to gain her approval. However, when both men discover each others true identity, they continue to carry out with their fake identities, now since they both have things to lose. Finally at the end of the play, Dr. Chausble comes back into the scene when Lady Bracknell was about to leave. He mentions that he going back to see Miss Prism. Lady Bracknell then accuses Miss Prison of leaving a baby and never returning. She demands to know where the baby is. Jack joins in on the altercation pressing Miss Prisons to tell them where the bag with the baby in it was left. She then confesses that the bag was hers, and Jack comes to the realization that Miss Prism is his mother. It then later becomes revealed that Jack's real name is indeed Earnest John. He also learns that his younger bother is Algernon. The newly found mother and son embrace, and Jack finally understands the vital importance of being Earnest.
The atmosphere of the performance was open, lively and never took itself too serious. The Cheshire Academy varsity crew did a wonderful with the staging of the set. I really like the new setup of the blackbox. The setup feels more separated and we can have multiple spaces designated as certain areas. I also like how the doors leading into the changing room can now have an active duty on stage with Characters leaving through the door. Changes to the set during intermissions were executed flawlessly, and the music when the lights were down was a nice touch to keep the mood joyful. Peter Deng did an unbelievable job designing the scenery. His artistic talent never fails to impress me.
All actors in the production did a wonderful job on stage with no noticeable hiccups from an audience's perspective. Even if there were a few bloopers, the cast was able to overcome them and keep on acting in a precessional manor. I was amazed with the amount of lines Aaron and Tas had to memorize for the play. I could tell that they must have put a least one-hundred hours of practice and dedication into memorizing their lines and movements on stage. This preparation payed off dividends on opening night, and both actors can applaud themselves for nailing their performances! I also loved how Aaron was able to eat and talk so clearly at the same time. He must of been so full after the performance, since he was pounding muffins down like no tomorrow! I liked how the production went on about dressing the actors. I was able to see dynamics such as personalities and social classes just based off the clothing each character wore. That bright red dress that Linda wore as Lady Bracknell caught my attention from within the opening scene. Overall I thought that all actors did a wonderful job in performing a long, and sometimes hard play to follow from its old English script. These challenges were met head on, and the outcome is definitely something for the stage crew and cast to be satisfied with.
"The Importance of Being Earnest" tells a story of protagonist Jack Worthing, and his best friend Algernon Montcrief. Both men live double lives by calling themselves "Earnest" to mainly impress people, and also entertain themselves from their more boring real lives. In the play, irony is carried out to be one of the major themes. The irony of the play is that the name "Earnest" is to be given to an honest man, and both of these men are anything but honest. This plot puts together for an enjoyable play where conflict is inevitable. Both men have love interests, and Jack wins over his love, Gwendolyn Fairfax solely with having his name being Earnest. It is important to know that Gwendolyn only cares that she is marrying a man with the name Earnest. When Algernon falls in loves with Jack's wade Cecily Cardew he too uses his Earnest identity to gain her approval. However, when both men discover each others true identity, they continue to carry out with their fake identities, now since they both have things to lose. Finally at the end of the play, Dr. Chausble comes back into the scene when Lady Bracknell was about to leave. He mentions that he going back to see Miss Prism. Lady Bracknell then accuses Miss Prison of leaving a baby and never returning. She demands to know where the baby is. Jack joins in on the altercation pressing Miss Prisons to tell them where the bag with the baby in it was left. She then confesses that the bag was hers, and Jack comes to the realization that Miss Prism is his mother. It then later becomes revealed that Jack's real name is indeed Earnest John. He also learns that his younger bother is Algernon. The newly found mother and son embrace, and Jack finally understands the vital importance of being Earnest.
The atmosphere of the performance was open, lively and never took itself too serious. The Cheshire Academy varsity crew did a wonderful with the staging of the set. I really like the new setup of the blackbox. The setup feels more separated and we can have multiple spaces designated as certain areas. I also like how the doors leading into the changing room can now have an active duty on stage with Characters leaving through the door. Changes to the set during intermissions were executed flawlessly, and the music when the lights were down was a nice touch to keep the mood joyful. Peter Deng did an unbelievable job designing the scenery. His artistic talent never fails to impress me.
All actors in the production did a wonderful job on stage with no noticeable hiccups from an audience's perspective. Even if there were a few bloopers, the cast was able to overcome them and keep on acting in a precessional manor. I was amazed with the amount of lines Aaron and Tas had to memorize for the play. I could tell that they must have put a least one-hundred hours of practice and dedication into memorizing their lines and movements on stage. This preparation payed off dividends on opening night, and both actors can applaud themselves for nailing their performances! I also loved how Aaron was able to eat and talk so clearly at the same time. He must of been so full after the performance, since he was pounding muffins down like no tomorrow! I liked how the production went on about dressing the actors. I was able to see dynamics such as personalities and social classes just based off the clothing each character wore. That bright red dress that Linda wore as Lady Bracknell caught my attention from within the opening scene. Overall I thought that all actors did a wonderful job in performing a long, and sometimes hard play to follow from its old English script. These challenges were met head on, and the outcome is definitely something for the stage crew and cast to be satisfied with.
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