Trivial Comedy to Strike Earnest Tone at Solvang Festival Theater
Juxtaposing dichotomous virtues has long been a staple of intellectual comedy. Playing levity off of gravity can reveal the depths of both in an enlightening and hilarious fashion. When composed with the wit and verbal prowess of a writer such as Oscar Wilde, the two can open the floodgates of incisive social commentary and sincere introspection.
PCPA’s production of Wilde’s 1895 play “The Importance of Being Earnest” will showcase an author at his comedic peak and expose the changing social climate of a declining Victorian aristocracy.
“As you work on the play, line by
line through the text, the writing is absolutely impeccable,” Director
Marc Booher said. “I think that we all aspire
to crack wit and make love with language the way that Oscar Wilde was able to
in this play. That’s been the continually unfolding revelation of this
play, we think it’s great and then you get into working on it and it’s
better than you imagined.”
Wilde’s
insightful comedy about his character Jack and Jack’s fictitious brother
Ernest is set in
“If
not for Gwendolen, we probably wouldn’t have
any of the complications in the story because she falls in love with Jack,
wants to marry Jack, and her mother is adamantly opposed to that,” said
Vanessa Ballan, the resident actress playing Gwendolen. “Her mother represents the land of gentry,
the aristocracy of the time and old-fashioned ideals. Gwendolen
tries to think of herself as young and independent and able to do things on her
own.”
But
as the focus on social standards retards Gwendolen’s
chances with Jack, Jack is secretly running a life under the identity of his
non-existent brother Ernest in
“I
think there’s a lot of that in me, just a lot of those social forms that
I live up to,” said J. Todd Adams, the actor portraying Jack. “Then
I went away to grad school in
Packed
with clever dialogue and comic twists of fate, Wilde crafted what Booher said some have called “the greatest English
language comedy ever penned.”
“The
great thing about working on great plays is that there aren’t problems to
be solved and I needn’t worry about being more clever
than Oscar Wilde,” he said. “The wit of it is part of what attracts
us. We all want to be as smart and as funny and quirky as the characters in
this play.
“It’s
a social satire that ultimately really is a valentine that celebrates the
triumph of truth and love, of earnestness in love. And so that’s what I
think is so winning about it, is that ultimately we all want to feel that in
the end, despite sometimes the ridiculous social manners and morays that
we’re surrounded by, or being caught in what seem like impossible
situations even having to do with our own identity, that finally love will win out
and that we’ll end up with the people we’re supposed to be with and
circumstances that we’re supposed to end in.”
Show
Dates: June 28 - July 14
Tickets
available by calling (805)922-8313 or online at www.pcpa.org