The Importance of Being Earnest

Directed by Jacques Cartier at the Huntington Theatre through February 13

It's not necessarily the best of signs when you spend more time looking at the sets than at the actors, but if there were ever a play in which style was more important than substance, it is The Importance of Being Earnest. If the Huntington Theatre's current production of the classic Oscar Wilde satire falls short on verve, therefore, it almost makes up for it by enough elegance for three Edith Wharton novels.

The Incessantly silly plot revolves around friends Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. Jack is in love with Algernon's cousin Gwendolen; Algernon falls in love with Jack's ward Cecily. Throw in a case of mixed identity, a missing handbag, a formidable aunt and a bunch of cucumber sandwiches and that's basically the plot of possibly the most prefect comedy ever written.

The cast performs solidly, if not splendidly. Terrence Caza and Kathleen McNenny are suitably prim as Jack and Gwendolen and provide a nice contrast to the far wackier pair of Algernon and Cecily. As Algernon, Bill Mondy is a little too affected--even for the obvious dilettante the young Victorian is supposed to be. While Algernon is supposed to know he's being insufferable, the actor playing him should not let his own self-knowledge of how funny his lines are show through. Mondy's performance is a bit smug, particularly in the first act.

If Mondy improves in the second and third acts it is possibly because he is sharing the stage with the best actor of the production, Katy Selverstone as Cecily. Her ditzy manner is absolutely sincere; she inhabits her character far more believably than do any of the others. Fiona Reed is likewise quite good as the intimidating Lady Bracknell. Reed is about twenty years younger than most actors cast in this famous part and this makes the part more interesting. She is no less a gorgon for being pretty but her relative youth (which after all makes much more sense for the mother of twenty-something Gwendolen than the usual late 60s matron cast) makes many of the most famous lines seem fresh.

Robert Morgan's sets are the star of this production. For the first act, Morgan had created a perfect Victorian gentleman's study in dark wood with stained glass windows and elegant furniture. Drawing in Wilde's own taste for Asiatic art, Morgan has decorated the room with Asian screens and blue china bric-a-brac. The overall affect is stunning. The second act set is even better, a gorgeous country garden complete with white lawn furniture and overhanging trees. A profusion of flowers cover the black iron gates and the interior of the third set can be glimpsed through one door. If the third set, a dark oak library with men in armor and a glass domed roof, seems slightly less inventive, it is possibly because our eyes have become numbed by the magnificence that preceded it.

David Murin's costumes and Rogers Meeker's lighting ably round out the rest of this production's design. Murin sticks mostly to standard Victorian fare but produces some remarkable effects with it, most notably Algernon's dressing gown and the sublime hats worn by Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell in the first act. Meerker's lighting is particularly notable in the second act, when the garden appears infused with sunshine.

Director Jacques Cartier uses the sets ably and has done a good job of staging the play--the tea scene between Gwendolen and Cecily is especially imaginative. But when such a good play is often dragged down by a plodding pace and often tepid performances it is usually the director's fault. While this production is still worth seeing (particularly for those who have never seen Earnest before and who won't know what they're missing) stronger direction might have shaken up the cast a bit more and made it a production worthy of wilde.