Le Petit’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ hypes the humor in Wilde’s witty social sendup

Poet and playwright Oscar Wilde wields words like a sharp stick in his 1895 comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest.” His characters poke and jab at one another incessantly, as Wilde likewise needles the stiff conventions of Victorian high society. Even the play’s subtitle, “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People,” is delivered with a wink and a nudge.

In a new production at Le Petit Théâtre Du Vieux Carré directed by A.J. Allegra, the cast and crew lean into Wilde’s signature wit and style while also ramping up the play’s inherent humor to the point of comic ridiculousness. The result is a fun and fast-paced farce that manages to appear finely tailored while it’s not-so-quietly bursting at the seams.

The play’s plot is a series of deceptions and misunderstandings, primarily perpetrated by a pair of rakish gents, Jack and Algernon. Splitting their time between London and the countryside, each chap lives a sort of double life, having invented excuses to travel back and forth so that one world doesn’t encroach upon the other.

But all that changes when the men fall in love—Jack with Algernon’s cousin Gwendolen, and Algernon with Jack’s ward Cecily—and they must creatively solve the dilemma of how to tell the truth.

Comedy to the fore

Too often, when tackling a comedy of manners like “Earnest,” productions focus more on the manners than the comedy, offering demure drawing room fare with a sly titter.

But here, the cast delights in clowning around, playing each scene loud and brash, tossing knowing asides at the audience, and engaging in some light slapstick, which brings lowbrow raucousness to the highbrow goings-on.

As Jack and Algernon, Noah Hazzard and Rohan Padmakumar are fine and dandy players in their respective roles, a pair of lively lads with great chemistry and strong stage presence.

Likewise for their lovely ladyfriends, Gwendolen and Cecily, played by Bethany Lee and Yvette Bourgeois as clever and coy, but also vivacious enough to stand toe-to-toe with their male counterparts—and with each other—in spirited repartee.

The core four are bolstered by a strong supporting cast that includes Kyle Daigrepont as a wry put-upon butler, alongside Queen Shereen Macklin and David W. Hoover as Miss Prism and Reverend Chasuble, who get caught up in the romantic shenanigans.

The rules of society

But it’s Lady Bracknell—Algernon’s aunt and Gwendolen’s mother—played by Tracey Collins, who nearly steals the show. The stern Victorian matriarch questions the suitableness of the bachelors and their love interests, adhering to rigid standards of fashion and properness. Her assessments are scathing and hilarious, landing somewhere between “Downton Abbey” and Dame Edna.

“Never speak disrespectfully of society,” she cautions. “Only people who can’t get into it do that.”

The play is chock full of bon mots and sharp one-liners, with Gwendolen getting perhaps the best of the bunch: “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing,” she declares.

The line encapsulates Wilde’s skewering of a vapid and hypocritical social class, but it also serves as a production note. There’s very little sincerity in this production of “Earnest,” which opts instead for broad comedy and exaggerated melodrama to drive home the ridiculousness of the elite, but the show absolutely oozes with style.

Costume designer Kaci Thomassie creates fabulous looks for each character, from the men’s tailcoats, ascots, and wingtip boots, to the ladies’ colorful layered dresses and elaborate flower-and-plume hats.

The scenic design by Joan Long is equally enchanting, a revolving set that neatly shifts from a stately London residence to a pastoral country manor.

The joke’s on them

Wilde had good reason to poke holes in polite society, since the era’s repressed Victorian morality prevented him from living and loving as an openly gay artist.

In fact, “Earnest” would be the writer’s last success, as just months after its premiere Wilde was jailed on charges of “gross indecency.”

After a two-year imprisonment, he moved to France and later died broke in a cheap Paris flophouse at the age of 46.

So while some Anglophiles tend to romanticize wealthy British elegance, a sentiment that often colors pop culture depictions of the era, it seems earnestly important to point out that Wilde intends for audiences to laugh at the aristocracy in “Earnest,” not with them, and Le Petit’s vibrant and energetic production offers ample opportunity to do just that.

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“THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST”

WHEN: through June 23

WHERE: Le Petit Theatre

616 St. Peter St., New Orleans

TICKETS: $40-75 ($20 for students)

INFO: lepetittheatre.com