Where Jack and Algy Are, at Last, Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest Annotated by The Importance of Being Earnest Annotated Oscar Wilde
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oscar Wilde is a clever, funny writer, and this is as good as anything he's written. Might be my favorite. (I also enjoyed "An Ideal Husband," "A woman of No Importance," and "Lady Windermere's Fan." Lots of similarities.) His characters are comic rather than realistic, always slightly askew, which could be a turnoff for some. But if you hear them as if they're always being tongue-in-cheek and only partly sincere (which is not too far off), as if they are always in on the joke, like a character in an SNL sketch, and always about a second from bursting out into laughter, it makes a lot of sense. People get angry here, but they're always performatively angry. They give and take offense, but forgive it immediately. They behave badly but but feel shame and embarrassment for about one line--and then they're over it.

It works for me.

Jack, who calls himself Ernest while in London, pretends when he leaves his home in the country that he's going to London to visit his *brother* Ernest (who doesn't exit), a poor young man who's always supposed to be in some kind of trouble, and he wants to marry Gwendolyn, his friend Algernon's cousin. Algernon, who leaves London occasionally to visit his imaginary sick friend Bunbury, finds out Jack has a young female ward who he wants to meet. He tracks down Jack's home, finds Cecily, pretends to be the poor brother Ernest, falls in love with her, and convinces her to marry him. Jack, returning home in mourning pretending Ernest is dead, is horrified to find Algernon pretending to be the fake brother Earnest in excellent health.

Then, the hijinks. Really, though, it's the ironic dialogue that's funniest. Here's Jack when he's caught in a lie and forced to confess:

Jack: Gwendolen--Cecily--it is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth. It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful position, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind...

And here's Algernon explaining to his aunt that his friend Bunbury is dead:

Algernon: My dear Aunt Augusta... The doctors found out that Bunbury could not live... so Bunbury died.
Lady Bracknell: He seems to have had great confidence in the opinion of his physicians. I am glad, however, that he made up his mind at the last to some definite course of action, and acted under proper medical advice.

A mystery gets solved, problems are cleared up, and everybody gets a very nice happily ever after.

It's a very funny play, light and silly, and I recommended it.

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