Stagecraft, casting gild Wilde play

The stagehands — dressed as house servants in late 19th-century England and creatively choreographed by stage manager Anne Alves — earn the first round of applause as they literally set the stage for Hawaii Pacific University’s latest production of "The Importance of Being Earnest."

The set, designed by George Spelvin and cast member Duncan Dalzell, is minimalist, but the imaginative use of curtains, sectional backdrops and furniture suffices to create two luxuriously appointed rooms and a country garden. The stagehands perform with the same efficiency when a set change is required in the middle of Act 2.

The prominent role of the stagehands instantly distinguishes this production from HPU’s 2000 staging of Oscar Wilde’s best-known comedy of manners, as does director Joyce Maltby’s decision to cast a man in a major female role, giving the new version a subtext Wilde could not have anticipated when he wrote the play in 1894.

With or without that distraction, the premise of Wilde’s witty dissection of the foibles of the British upper class is relatively simple: John Worthing’s primary residence is a country estate, but he uses the mishaps of a fictional younger brother named Earnest as a reason to spend time in London, where he goes by the name of Earnest. Algernon Moncrieff’s primary residence is a townhouse in London, but he uses the ill health of a fictional friend named Bunbury as a way to avoid family gatherings and obligations.

Worthing is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, who lives in London and knows him as Earnest. She accepts his proposal of marriage for the silliest of reasons and says emphatically that she could not love him if his name was anything other than Earnest. Additional complications ensue when the story moves to Worthing’s estate.

Dalzell (Moncrieff) and Richard Bragdon (Worthing) give convincing portrayals of idle English gentlemen. Dalzell wears the character of a cynical, self-absorbed layabout like a second skin. Bragdon plays Worthing as an honorable man who has become entangled in a needless deception.

Sara Cate Langham (Gwendolen) does a charming job as a proper, well-bred English lady for whom thinking is an occasional thing and logic is unknown. Lacey Perrine Chu (Cecily Cardew) is superb in the role of an airhead virgin whose dreams revolve around her imaginary engagement to Worthing’s younger brother.

Larry Bialock (Rev. Canon Chasuble) and Virginia Jones (Miss Prism) are a delightful comic couple in Act 2. Bialock delivers sexually suggestive lines with a straight face but with a twinkle in his eye. Jones’ expressive responses define Miss Prism as a woman barely able to suppress the passion seething just below the surface. Her physical responses to Bialock’s suggestive one-liners create some of the best moments in the show.

Mitchell Milan, in the role of Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen’s battle-ax of a mother, takes the character as over the top as an accomplished comic actor can go.

We’re not just watching a talented actor perform in full late-Victorian drag; we’re watching him milk the material for every bit of exaggerated visual comedy possible.

While HPU’s production is not a traditional take on Wilde’s timeless work, it is an excellent introduction to it.