Matthew J. Patten and Kara Penrose in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST with SummerStage
Oscar Wilde has one of the most distinctive voices in the history of the theater. The wit and wisdom of the playwright feels so fundamental to contemporary culture that it can be easy to forget just how fun an Oscar Wilde show can be.
This month, SummerStage brings Wilde into the outdoors with a staging of The Importance of Being Earnest in a park in Delafield. Dustin J. Martin directs the comedy at Lapham Peak State Park on W329 N846 County Rd C. It’s a pleasant, little trip down the highway to a space that feels every bit as secluded as outdoor theaters that are much further away. One doesn’t have to go to Spring Green or Door County to enjoy a solidly-produced outdoor show in an out-of-the-way space. In the calm wilderness of a reasonably distant park, Oscar Wilde’s wit tumbles across the stage with casual grace in an entertaining production.
Elements around the edges of the action might not be perfect, but the core of the SummerStage ensemble is remarkably sharp with Wilde’s words.
Matthew J. Patten toys with a dryly playful cleverness in the role of selfish aristocrat Algernon Moncrieff. I always felt that there was an underlying boredom about the idly wealthy character that an actor should endeavor to render, but Patten does brilliantly without it. Patten’s Algernon is quite actively interested in the action of the play, which adds a bit to the fun of the show.
Algernon is quite amused to receive a visit from his friend Earnest, whose real name turns out to be Jack. Evidently he’d been leading something of a double life that Algernon decides to toy with a few moments into Act II. Jack is played by Nathan Danzer with an...earnestness that’s very endearing. I’ve seen Danzer perform smaller roles in smaller places and I must say that his talent really opens-up out in the open like this. The central cast that he’s working with allow him to develop a very touchingly sympathetic character in spite of his penchant for obfuscation. Happy to see Danzer in a role like this.
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Ruth Arnell plays the love of Jack’s life...a woman named Gwendolyn Fairfax who knows Jack only as Earnest. She agrees to marry him, but insists that she could not were it not named Earnest. It’s kind of a strange obsession the character has with the name and it always felt a bit weakly-developed in Wilde’s script, but Arnell does a splendid job of making it believable and the rest of the cahracter exceedingly likeable. She’s a very deft wit onstage with some very clever subtlety about her that’s great fun here.
Rounding out the central cast is Kara Penrose in the role of Jack’s ward--an attractive, young woman named Cecily. Wilde’s characterization of the young woman can come across quite feebly if the right balance isn’t executed. Fed the wrong way, she might seem intellectually weak and daffy, but Penrose’s gliding across the stage in the role makes her feel a bit more like an artist who plays with her own perceptions...something of Wilde’s version of a manic pixie dream girl, which makes her quite a bit more admirable than she might otherwise seem.
After suffering through a spot of bad weather last weekend, the second weekend appears to have been quite a bit kinder to the production. The show rolls into it’s final weekend this coming Thursday.
SummerStage’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest runs through Jun. 25. For ticket reservations and more, visit SummerStage online.
...next week I’m going outdoors again with The Ganymede Ensemble’s all-woman staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Hart Park.
