Five stars
If you thought a Victorian satire written by an Irishman about English aristocracy couldn’t work in the open air of a Glasgow park, think again.
This production playing as part of this summer's 'Fault in Our Stars' season is already a big hit with Bard aficionados and is one not to be missed.
It is laugh-a-minute stuff, brilliantly performed by an accomplished cast and a testament to the clever direction of Gordon Barr and stage design by Heather Grace Currie.
It would be wrong to single out any one actor from a cast of flawless performances. But you know who you are, so well done.
Rapturous
If the duration of two and half hours had appeared daunting at the start, it certainly did not feel that way at the end.
Rapturous applause lifted the darkening quiet of the Botanic Gardens as the curtains went down on this classic and absurd farce.
The intensity of non-stop verbal masterplay of Wilde’s nonsense dialogue and situations had gripped attention.
A simple stage and effects were enough to captivate an audience who were engrossed in a bonkers melodrama from the get-go.
The production is expertly taken out of the Victoria era and given a modern-clothes treatment but with enough of the aristocratic touchstones of smoking jackets and parlour-room opulence.
It is laugh-a-minute stuff, brilliantly performed by an accomplished cast and a testament to the clever direction of Gordon Barr and stage design by Heather Grace Currie.
Review
For a comedy of pretence, the use of real accents reflects the diversity of the cast - Australian, Northern Irish, Scottish, broad Glaswegian - and they all work perfectly.
And what a great way to sign-off a captivating performance, with the sassy vibes of Andy Williams and ‘I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’.
This is one of Oscar Wilde’s greatest works, but one ironically that got him into trouble with Victorian society.
Lady Bracknell is based on the mother of Wilde’s lover Lord Alfred Douglas who clashed with the playwright in a court case in the aftermath of the play which outed the dramatist as homosexual and led to his imprisonment and eventual exile.
In his programme notes, Barr suggests the play draws parallels with modern society, depicting a world where identity is little more than a construct.
How you are "seen" is much more important than who you actually are.
"We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces", laments Lady Bracknell.
Filtered
Barr says: “I don't think it's too much of a leap to see our own world - where life is filtered through social media, appearance through cosmetic procedures etc. - in much the same way.”
Bard in the Botanics may have broadened its repertoire away from offering only Shakespeare but it has not departed from its principle of bringing Glasgow original adaptations of great literature.
We say see this play and go Wilde in the park this summer because you will not regret it.
Cast
Algernon Moncrieff James Boal
Lane, Mr Moncrieff's manservant Johnny Panchaud
John (Jack) Worthing, J.P. Stephen Arden
Lady Bracknell Alan Steele
Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax, her daughter Claire Macallister
Cecily Cardew, John Worthing's ward Éimi Quinn
Miss Prism, her governess Lynsey-Anne Moffat
Reverend Canon Chasuble, D.D., Rector of Woolton Johnny Panchaud
