Review- Ncuti Gatwa in The Importance of Being Earnest at the National theatre - review with photos

[@ilexdiapason]

i'm going this week, with some friends who put on a production of earnest under my co-direction about two years ago! hopefully it lives up to my rose-tinted memories of the experience...

[@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven]

@ilexdiapason I suspect you’ll find it a bit different to your production. My advice is, enjoy the acting and the lines, but don’t expect a traditional interpretation.

[@markharris1125]

My main thought about this: I really enjoyed it. I didn't know the play, apart from the famous lines, and of course it was absurd and didn't make all that much sense, but it was very funny and I enjoyed all the actors. Your description of Cecily talking like Queenie in Blackadder is spot on, and I loved it. Sharon D Clarke was amazing, and I wish the character had been in it more. As for Mr Gatwa, I really enjoyed his performance. In the flesh - and near the start there's quite a lot of flesh, my god those thighs - he has a charisma I've never seen come through the TV screen. The smile is 500 watts and he has such an easy, cheeky connection to the audience. I wonder if the part of the Doctor came to him too early. Give him a few more years in the theatre, a few more diverse TV shows, and he could have been a terrific Time Lord. (And he was much better in this year's Christmas Special.) I was in one of the really cheap seats in the front row (£27, what a price for a full-on National Theatre show) and felt immersed in the production, those bright costumes and clever scenery. Everyone except Lady Bracknell was just a few feet away at times. The woman next to me didn't come back for the second half, and I had been getting some unhappy vibes from her. Well, her loss. I spread myself out a bit more and thoroughly enjoyed the show. And I'm very earnest about that.

[@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven]

I agree with everything you’ve said about the acting and the design. I just didn’t like the director’s interpretation of one of my favourite plays. Anyway, I respect that it worked for you- and a lot of other people.

[@KatyaFirehair]

...but how were the ensemble? :D I only ask, because I work with one of them - who is a true character and I'd imagine she'd fit right in with this production even in the smallest of roles

[@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven]

I mentioned every speaking role except Julian Bleach who played the two servants and was very funny. I missed him out by mistake. This time of year, with all the colds, covid and flu about, you friend may well get the chance to shine.

[@KatyaFirehair]

@@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven Yeah, my colleague is in the ensemble (without a speaking role, I guess) but is an understudy. I wasn't being entirely serious about the lack of mention - it's just the first time that I've known a member of a professional cast ;)

[@markharris1125]

@@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven Julian Bleach! Another one for the Doctor Who Bingo card!

[@markharris1125]

Going to see the matinee two days after Christmas. I don't really know the play (the horror!) but obviously it's the National and it's a chance to tick another Doctor off my bingo card. But I booked before I'd really seen this new incarnation of Doctor Who, and I can't abide the travesty it's become. I'm pretty convinced that Mr Gatwa can't actually act. He never demonstrates any ability in the show. You don't mention him much so I presume he's just doing the Doctor, certainly sounds like it. I've seen Sharon D. Clarke before, and if anyone was going to save it, you'd expect it to be her. So my expectations were very low to begin with and I will drag myself to London over Christmas with a heavy heart, thinking, 'Should have gone to see The Master in A Christmas Carol!' I thought it was going to be two stars, the way you were speaking! My thoughts, as always, will come later!

[@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven]

I haven’t seen Ncuti Gatwa in Doctor Who but I think you’ll find he does well in this. You may like the production more than me. I can see it could be fun if you don’t know and love the play. I look forward to your review.

[@hotdog1214]

I'm still undecided about Gatwa as the Doctor. I haven't seen him on stage bar a few clips on the web in which he seems to project well, but I'm not convinced that it translates to TV. It's not to say he's good or bad at acting but the different mediums require a different approach. Theatre needs to be, for the most part, big and bold, to reach the audience at the back, whereas tv can have those moments but needs to be contrasted with quieter moments, more introspective and intimate with the viewer - alas it is this I find lacking in his performance on Who so far, I often want to say "please Ncuti, just dial it back a bit". I'd better take cover though before the Whovians find me making such scandalous remarks! 😂😂 Sharon D. Clarke, again not seen on stage but I've seen her in Doctor Who and despite being in only one and a bit episodes had a great energy, just watching her in Ellis and she brings a whole different energy, calm, collected but still a compelling presence. Thanks to this review I can imagine what she would bring to Lady Bracknell, I think she's definitely an actress of range.

[@belfire86]

I loved it so if you are just going to grit your teeth and whinge I will happily take your tickets of your hands to see it again.

[@markharris1125]

@@belfire86 And a happy Christmas to you too! Actually. I do sound a bit curmudgeonly and I apologise for that. But I've just been so disappointed by Gatwa as the Doctor - no gravitas, no sense of his place in the universe, or the centuries that rest on his shoulders. And maybe a lot of that is in the writing. And despite the millions supposedly thrown at it, it looks so cheap nowadays. I do believe I will enjoy this play, as he seems better suited to this than Doctor Who. Actually the main reason I'll have to 'drag' myself to London is that there's no direct service on the main line from Chelmsford, so it's replacement bus to Billericay, train to Stratford, then the Underground. Adds an hour at least and the buses are freezing. Sixteen days to go and honestly, I am looking forward to it.

[@christopherrobinwattsthoma6318]

😅😅😅😅😅

[@PrivatePrivate-so4if]

Sorry. It didn’t work for me. The gay element was far too over the top. It’s getting so tedious. Wilde would not have been amused I fear. Two stars from me because of its camp crudity and inability to deliver Wilde’s actual masterpiece. It sure is no Christmas show and my Jamaican neighbour even walked out. We stayed to the end but now wish we hadn’t.

[@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven]

Thank you for the comment. Please may I include it on my website theatre.reviews as part of my Reviews Roundup? Best wishes Paul

[@PrivatePrivate-so4if]

@ Certainly.

[@TheSuzberry]

Why do modern Brits think they are capable of re-writing classics better than the original authors? I’ve seen it with several productions of Shakespeare. Disappointing when you love the original very much.

[@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven]

Some classic playsare done so often that sometimes theatre people get bored with them. Personally I don’t mind something different, but good actors only need the script. Take this production- Sharon D Clarke is so good as Lady Bracknell that the evening would have been great without any additions.

[@nondescript2892]

all plays..old and new.. get tinkered with all the time..nothing new there...Shakespeare in its original form and lenght is, mercifully, hardly ever done..theatre is a living art form..not some museum for sacred texts!...as for Wilde's plays..good as they are( some of them)..the only reason why tbey are still performed is exactly the gay scandal and the immortality that bestowed on Wilde..otherwise he would just be another fin de siecle play author..can u ..from the top of your head..name me some of his contemporaries in drawing room light comedy? any still performed? So I think this production goes straight to the core of why this is still performed and more or less relevant instead of beating around the bush.

[@babypicassoeisenstein]

Because it's theatre, that's how theatre works. It is about the present day, not the past. You shouldn't be disappointed since you have likely never ever seen an original production.

[@TheSuzberry]

@ you mean Shakespeare’s original production? I’ve seen live productions that were attempting to reproduce the contemporaneous productions. I’ve seen productions at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington and at the RSC in London. (Edit: and a traditional production of “The Tempest” at the University of Chattanooga.) Those directed by Americans seem to respect the text more than the British directors. Maybe the ‘colonials’ were so impressed to have a ‘real British director’ they let them have free rein. “Merry Wives of Windsor” moved to the 1950’s was charming - but they didn’t rewrite it. Edit 2: “As You Like It” with a torture scene complete with dripping blood went too far for my taste.

[@babypicassoeisenstein]

@@TheSuzberry I mean in Shakespeare's day to which the answer is 'no'.

[@ajpetri]

i saw it and was very disappointed. indeed, subtle it ain't. Wilde for the TikTok generation.

[@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven]

‘Wilde for the TikTok’ generation’. I wish I’d thought of that.

[@babypicassoeisenstein]

how is it tiktok?

[@ajpetri]

@@babypicassoeisenstein i didn't say "it was tiktok". I said it was a production for "tiktok generation" 🤷‍♂️

[@babypicassoeisenstein]

@@ajpetri Yes I know and you also understood my meaning, so answer the question. In what sense is this for the tik tok generation?

[@ajpetri]

@@babypicassoeisenstein if you want people to understand your meaning, you might want to express yourself more clearly

[@petergregory9029]

Not a word about the racially blind casting, the glaring elephant in the room.

[@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven]

@@petergregory9029 I hadn’t thought about it. I expect actors to be cast for their ability, not the colour of their skin. After all, theatre is pretence. None of the actors are really upper class Victorians.

[@Thisismyusername227]

why is that the elephant in the room?

[@christopherrolls9215]

Not for you then, dear.

[@TheatreReviewsWithPaulSeven]

@@christopherrolls9215 It gave me a fit of the vapours