I have only seen one production from the Barnstormers, but I might be scared to see another. That is, because I worry it can’t possibly meet or exceed my experience witnessing their performance of The Importance of Being Earnest, an 1895 play by Oscar Wilde.
The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedic play covering the conflict between two men who both claim to be a fictional man named Ernest. The stakes are all the more severe, however, when these mens’ lovers, Gwendolen (Adrianne Lin) and Cecily (Briana Hemphill), will only marry a man with the name Ernest — they would never marry a man by the name of, say, Jack (Jackson Robien) or Algernon (Ryan Garza), the real names of their respective lovers.
Act One opens with a man named Ernest visiting his friend Algernon for the purpose of proposing to Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen. During their talk, Algernon snoops through a cigarette case from a “Cecily,” who calls Ernest “Uncle Jack.” The cigarette case forces Jack to reveal that his true name isn’t Ernest, and that he lives a double life when in London versus the countryside. He invented his brother Ernest for his ward, or orphan under his care, Cecily; now, however, Jack is considering killing off make-believe Ernest because Cecily has become too interested. In describing Cecily, Jack unwittingly fosters Algernon’s interest in her.
Gwendolen enters the stage with her mother, Lady Bracknell (Gemma Watson), and Jack proposes immediately. Gwendolen accepts, but, in the process, she expresses her disdain for any name other than Ernest. Jack panics, knowing that, to keep Gwendolen, he must soon find a way to change his name.
Act Two opens with Jack returning to his countryside manor to relay Ernest’s tragic passing (in order to claim the name for himself); Algernon also goes to the countryside manor — he, however, is claiming to be Ernest for Cecily’s hand in marriage.
As soon as Jack laments his fictional brother’s death, Algernon, disguised as Ernest, strolls on stage, and it’s written off as a miracle. It’s not much later that, like Jack and Gwendolen, Algernon and Cecily are engaged, but both women believe they are marrying Ernest. Moreover, neither woman knows of the other, so they cannot corroborate their stories. To remedy their unfitting names, Jack and Algernon separately seek out Dr. Chasuble (Omotayo Adenugba) to baptize and rechristen themselves Ernest.
Unbeknownst to Jack, his fiancé Gwendolen decides to pay a visit to the countryside manor, where she meets Cecily. The two women, both recently engaged, are eager to share the news with any listening ears. So they both do, at which point they realize they are both engaged to a man named Ernest who is staying at the manor. Then, Jack and Algernon arrive, and their fiancés — now privy to their wickedness — have united in their wrath against them.
We enter Act Three with Gwendolen and Cecily giving their fiancés the cold shoulder. That is, until they rather quickly forgive the two after their short, heartfelt apologies and re-declarations of love.
Cecily’s governess, Miss Prism (Liesel Arauz Vallecillo), then reveals that she had lost Lady Bracknell’s nephew 28 years prior, accidentally leaving him in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station. This description will perk the ears of any audience member who recalls Jack’s origin story, which matches up with this.
It is then confirmed that Jack was indeed the mistakenly abandoned baby, which makes Lady Bracknell his aunt, Algernon his brother and Gwendolen his cousin. Moreover, with the information provided by Lady Bracknell that Jack was named after his biologiclal father, the play ends with the revelation that Jack was rightfully calling himself Ernest all along.
Convoluted plays with several moving parts such as The Importance of Being Earnest are a gamble; the plentiful misunderstandings land as either well-received jokes or fly straight over the audience’s head and result in confusion. As with any comedy being performed over a century after it was written, the script itself might not be up to the task of rousing laughter from a modern audience. It’s up to the cast to breathe life and humor into the text, which is exactly what they did. Perhaps the loudest moment in the theater was when Lady Bracknell interrogated Jack regarding his worthiness of marrying Gwendolen.
I’m convinced both Watson and Robien are capable of pulling off one-person plays. They wielded skills that seemed clear even to a non-thespian audience member such as myself, such as their ability to create multitudes within their characters by fluctuating their cadences and mannerisms and second, rounding out their lines as contained, stand-alone conversations. Even though they are, I believe, capable of one-person plays, the howling audience doubtlessly appreciated having them both on stage at once.
Another shining example of skilled interpretation is Hemphill’s Cecily. The first time the audience meets Cecily, Hemphill makes it a memorable introduction. With an expert sense of body and stage presence, Hemphill appears to fill the theater with the vibe of a young girl lying belly-down on bed, twisting the telephone cable around her finger, which is the perfect modern touch for Cecily’s delightfully dramatic character.
While I doubt 1895 English reverends spoke or behaved like Dr. Chasuble did in the Barnstormers’ production, no one in the theater seemed disturbed by Adenugba’s direction — in fact, quite the opposite. If the aforementioned scene between Watson and Robien was the loudest moment in the theater, then Adenugba’s first appearance as Chasuble may have come in second.
Director Mark Gonzales, when asked in an interview with The News-Letter what this cast of Barnstormers brought to The Importance of Being Earnest, spoke about Adenugba’s take on Dr. Chasuble.
“One of our actors [Adenugba] grew up in Nigeria,” Gonzales explained. “[He] gave a very different idea of what Dr. Chasuble would bring in, something I didn’t think I was going to see until I cast him in the spot.”
Gonzales is referencing a voice that few, if any, other than Adenugba could have conceived and executed for Dr. Chasuble, who is a reverend in the play. Dr. Chasuble’s voice filled the theater with resonant, elongated sounds, which constructed sentences that lilted up and finished with head shakes and hand movements. For those who have had the pleasure of watching a preacher at work, one can understand what Adenugba was replicating.
Certain liberties like Adenugba’s are what Gonzales was referencing when, in the same interview, he answered a question regarding the difficulties performing The Importance of Being Earnest.
“Any play that’s public domain has the issue that you’re dealing with, that this was funny and casual conversation when it was written — in this case, 1895, which sounds very different from today in 2025,” Gonzales said. “Some lines are still funny. Some lines, we need to figure out what the actors are actually saying and how they are moving.”
In a play that, at the very end, became so chock-full of twists, I asked Gonzales why this play was still relevant today.
“[The] big theme that comes across is that... materialistic idea of marriage, that you can be attracted to someone solely because of their name or one quality,” Gonzales said. “So being able to [...] truly find that one person in your life who doesn’t come down to all of the things society has told you is a very, very important thing that could come out of this.”
The first ever performance of the play in 1895 was performed on Feb. 14. The Barnstormers’ production of The Importance of Being Earnest clings to historical integrity, as it was performed in anticipation of Valentine’s Day. But, despite this the play’s romantic connotations, it ends in a rather unromantic way. While the play doesn’t take issue with Jack/Ernest marrying his first cousin, modern viewers may experience discomfort at the thought. However, rejecting the play’s ending may lead to a more meaningful reimagination. It opens up the interpretation that, perhaps more than romantic love, familial love and a sense of belonging — as epitomized by the newfound brotherly bond between Jack and Algernon — is what one should seek.
