The Importance of Being Earnest - Royal Exchange Theatre

THE Importance of Being Earnest is as light as one of Lady Bracknell’s cucumber sandwiches.

While the RET’s decision to transport Wilde’s comedy to a modern setting doesn’t entirely work because of changes in social etiquette, spending an evening in the company in friends Jack and Algernon is still by and large, great fun even if the majority of the laugh out loud moments come in act two.

Robin Morrissey and Parth Thakerar are perfect for the roles with both displaying an expert comic timing as they pursue their romantic dreams.

Thakerar’s character is by far the most appealing, an incurable upper class layabout with a seemingly unquenchable appetite for food and the good things in life. If there was such a thing as a degree in sitting on your backside and doing nothing, Algy is sure to get a first.

While the social background inhabited by Algy is alien to most of us, we men would secretly like to be him I’m sure, even if we’re scared to admit it.

James Quinn, who seems to have been performing forever, is similarly gifted in the comic timing department as servants Lane and Merriman respectively and I also really enjoyed Rumi Sutton as Cecily.

It’s inevitable that a play that premiered in 1895 is showing its wrinkles. But there are some witty gems to enjoy from the master playwright, renowned for his immaculate turn of phrase.

Anyone looking for an evening in the theatre that will suit those steamy summer nights we will surely get at some point, are sure to enjoy a play that, to coin a phrase made famous by a TV ad from yesteryear, does exactly what it says on the tin.

Until July 20. Tickets are available from 0161 833 9833 or www.royalexchange.co.uk.

Star rating - 3.5 out of 5.

Photo by Johan Persson.