by Stephanie Green
If you’re looking for a retreat from the heat, why not dive into the refreshing wit and sparkling humor of Oscar Wilde’s classic “The Importance of Being Earnest” at the H Street Playhouse?
It’s got all the Wildean requisites: swooning Victorian ladies, dashing drawing room chaps, and those biting, but well-intentioned jabs at the upper class.
In fact, theatre savants will appreciate that this play contains one of Wilde’s most famous aphorisms: “Don’t speak ill of society, only people who can’t get in to it do that”.
However, the play’s artistic director Robert McNamara, strays off the traditional path with a sweeping creative flourish: Wilde’s female characters are portrayed by men, and his male characters are played by women.
At first, the highly dramatized and affected transgendered portrayals distract from the clever repartee, but then by the second act, the dialogue reclaims its stardom.
After all, you have to tip your hat to McNamara’s moxie. Drag queens and Victorian society are not exactly a congruous pairing, but this seems to work rather earnestly.
Playing through August 14. Tickets here.
