Theater Review: The Importance of Being Earnest

Theater is a strange place, but even there it doesn’t pay to be gay or to try to throw rotten vegetables at your lover after the performance of a play.

Even worse – if you’re playwright Oscar Wilde and the year is 1895, you just might be (as Wilde was) imprisoned for being something much worse: gay.

But ah, his play “The Importance of Being Earnest” has delighted playgoers ever since.

Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado shows you how in the show that has been running successfully since Sept. 21, but I just managed to get there to see it a few days ago.

You probably know the story, or should I say craziness that reigns during this “trivial comedy for serious people,” as the subtitle has it.

Lamb’s Players is one of the best of San Diego theaters, and they always manage to get the right people for their shows. This production is no exception.

There are several men here, some looking for a lover or future mate, and likewise several young women looking for the same thing. One in particular – Lady Bracknell – is customarily played by a woman. But here it’s everybody’s favorite comic, David McBean, wearing an outrageous costume who not only looks outrageous but will make you guffaw many times.

That’s not to ignore or disparage the other characters – Geno Carr (Merriman), Michael Louis Cusimano (Algernon Moncrieff), Brian Mackey (Jack Worthing) and Lauren King Thompson as the lovely Cecily Cardew.

Nor can I ignore smaller roles, equally wonderfully played: John Rosen as Lane the butler, Brian Salmon a the Chasuble, the redoubtable Deborah Gilmour Smyth as the hilarious Miss Prism and Rachael Van Wormer as Gwendolen Fairfax.

It’s great fun just watching these characters pretend to be wonderful (or at least other and more important than they really are), and also to hear Algernon Moncrieff’s “whimsical interpretation” of Frédéric Chopin’s masterpieces penned by Ben Read.

Kudos also to set designer Sean Fanning, lighting designer Nathan Peirson, costume designer Jeanne Reith, props designer Jessica Couto and sound designers Ben Read and Patrick Duffy.

This show looks, sounds and let’s face it, IS a lovely evening’s entertainment. Don’t miss it.