Fall play review

Cast:

Krystal Charter: Lane/Gribsby

Tasman Fox: Jack Worthing

Zoe Genden: Dr. Chausble

Mao Inoue: Cecily Cardew

Linda Li: Lady Bracknell

Stella Liang: Merriman

Aaron Luo: Algernon Montcrief

Amelia Williams: Gwendolyn Fairfax

Helen Zheng: Miss Prism

I watched a fall play called “The Importance of Being Earnest” presented by Cheshire Academy Varsity players on last Thursday, November 1st. The original play was written by Oscar Wilde, who was known as a radical writer in the past. Under the production of Mrs. Jennifer Guarino, there were 9 casts who acted throughout the play.

men who live in London. Jack, who known to Algernon as Earnest, lives a respectable life in the country while Algernon lives in luxury home located in London and has created an imaginary invalid friend named Bunbury whom he visits in the country. Jack also invents a character and calls himself as a Earnest whom he uses as pretext for going up to London to meet Gwendolen and for the entertainment. Jack wants to marry Gwendolen, who is Algernon’s cousin, but her mother who is known to be Lady Bracknell should allow it first since she is very strict woman. For Jack it must be quite difficult task as he has been abandoned before.  Algernon visits Jack’s house later and sees Cecily. He introduces himself as Earnest, knowing that Cecily likes the name and is fascinated by the Earnest’s wickedness; they fall in love and he become engaged later. However, when Jack and Gwendolen arrive to home, the truth is revealed that they are borth to be christened Earnest but not the actual name. After knowing that there is a fight among the couples and it gets reconciled. Soon later, Dr. Chasuble and Miss Prism come up and reveal the truth of Jack. Eventually, Jack discovers that his parents were Lady Bracknell’s sister and he is Algernon’s older brother. The sets of lovers are thus free to marry and the story ends with happy ending.

The performance was not really serious, but comedic and funny in some ways because it showed a sense of contradiction. The title of the show is The Importance of Being Earnest, which sounds like honest, but the play shows the feature of corrupt, morally bereft ways of the ruling class. The name of the show seems to show the “honest” aspect of characters and society, but the actual play implies purposeless, chaotic universe that we are living in, which is absurd. I thus found that it was funny that the play showed strong contradiction between title and the content.

I liked the staging and performances showed by characters, especially from Aaron and Tasman. Since they had most of the lines and movements to act throughout the whole play, it made me to think of their huge efforts that they put into the play and while practicing. I liked the way Aaron performed; his altered tone and facial expression reflected Gwendolyn character very well, and it was so funny when he keep repeated emphasizing the “Cucumber Sandwich.” I further liked the changed seat structure in Black Box, it reminded me of a more traditionally structured theater. However, I liked it lot since the seats made audience to focus so much better than the previous black box structure. The dresses  also reflected the characters’ personalities and social status very well; for instance, Aaron's silky robe showed his wealth while Tesman’s suit represented his respectable and modest personalities.

I think the play was very successful; the content was fresh and meaningful that it represented our corrupted society today. The characters further showed a great performance by showing great cooperation and huge effort.