Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

A lesson in being Earnest
Importance Of Being Earnest, one of Os-car Wilde’s well known and much loved plays – set in the 1890’s is about two young gentlemen living in England who use the same alias (Earnest) on the sly. What could possibly go wrong? A lot actually.

“Anyone who is familiar with the play remembers her lines,” said Neluka Silva of her character. Taking on the role of Lady Bracknell, she feels that this is one of the most interesting characters she has played. “I think my character has some of the best lines.” Oscar Wilde in an attempt to satirise his society, has made Lady Bracknell a witty virago and a pompous character, who, “tends to take over whenever she is on stage.”

Undoubtedly a very popular play, she explained that this was because it was very funny and cleverly written. “I feel that people identify Oscar Wilde with this play more than anything else,” she said explaining that this was because the play cleverly hits out at the pretentious London society. “It’s really fun to play this role,” she said, as Lady Bracknell has a good portion of the memorable lines in the play, so much so that she sometimes finds herself laughing at her own lines. She finds it “good fun” to be acting in a comedy of this nature.

Jinashri Samarakoon (producer) who plays the role of Gwendolyn, who is in love with Earnest, added that there is a lot of work going into plays of this nature when it comes to the acting, set design, lights, in short – “all technical aspects.” She sees her character Gwendolyn as an ‘upper class, hoity-toity miss’ who tries hard to please her mother, a society lady who looks down on ‘commoners’. Although she maintains her own identity, said Jinashri, there are times that no matter how hard she tries her mother’s nature comes through. Brought out as a highly opinionated person with her own ideas and virtues, “she is free spirited and she does it with a lot of class.” Not being the type to be caught saying anything wrong, Jinashri feels that her character is rude but is not blatantly so, “she’s subtle”.

Cecily like Gwendolyn is also in love with someone named Earnest. Even though she is as free spirited as Gwendolyn their similarity ends there. “She is a bubbly character who is full of life and at the same time someone who hasn’t had much experience,” said Nelum Goonetillake who plays Cecily. Explaining that her character’s world revolves around books, she added that Cecily is the type of person who would believe in everything that’s written in books. “She is light headed and has a mischievous side to her personality,” she added, which is why she gets all excited about Algernon (Earnest) arriving and falls in love with him.

While the whole Cecily-Earnest, Gwendolyn-Earnest saga takes place there is also another couple secretly in love – Dr. Chasuble and Ms. Prism. Playing the role of the Parish Priest who is in love with Ms. Prism, Namel Weeramuni said that he finds his character interesting. Having taken a great liking to his character he is thrilled with the response he gets from the rest of the cast. Describing his character he explained that Dr. Chasuble is more of an internal character, not the type of person to express his feelings. He finds the play a very interesting one for, “after all this is one of Wilde’s best regarded and most well-known plays.”

He felt that Wilde, in this play, ridicules the aristocracy of that particular period. “Wilde is hinting at the fact that even though this class boasted of high morals, there was a lot of hypocrisy,” says Namel. In short, this play is a light comedy that attacks the heart of the society that Wilde himself was a part of.

Dr. Chasuble’s love interest, Ms. Prism, is a spinster governess in her 50s or 60s who takes care of Cecily, who is ‘a flighty young thing’. Tania Samarasinghe playing the role of Ms. Prism feels that her character is someone with romantic sentiments who is also prim and proper. “She is dying for this priest but does not want to show it,” she said adding that this was probably because unlike the spontaneity allowed for a young girl, with age comes a certain amount of shyness. She says, “I am the tiny missing link in the whole mystery. Once they figure that out everything gets pretty much sorted out,” said Tania.

Importance Of Being Earnest directed by Jehan Bastians and Neidra Williams will go on boards at the Namel Malini Punchi Theatre on June 11,12 and 13. Media Sponsors for this event are TNL, Lite FM and The Sunday Times.

Top