The Importance of Being Earnest

Rating:
Summary: How to ruin a classic
Review: Wilde's play has taken a turn for the worse in the last 20 years. It appears that people have forgotten how to act comedy. The Importance of Being Earnest has admittedly been cast in the shadow of the famous 1952 movie for all eternity. Edith Evans's lady Bracknell in that movie is a hard act to follow but the eccentric British actress Miriam Margoyles is the only one of the cast in this sorry new recording to understand and be able to play a part in a famous play that is performed in words only.
The male characters both whine their words with little understanding of how to make them fall into place and become part of the larger whole in fact it sounds like a recording of a first run through with the scripts.
What really kills this recording is the director's decision to have a narrator read the stage directions. As if we are half wits who can't work out what's going on without being told that "an electric bell rings" when immediately after a character will respond and explain what the noise is and what is signifying - Duh!!!
This is not the way to make an audio recording of a play and even though it is the only recording of Earnest on CD this is not the one to have. John Gielgud directed himself and Edith Evans in a classic (but cut) version for EMI in the 1950's which has been occasionally available on cassette and Harper Collins have re-issued the 1960's Caedmon recording on cassette which is also an excellent production. It was a sad event in Caedmon's history when Harper Collins acquired them, the incredible collection of spoken word recordings all but disappeared from sight but now a few have been released on cassette and even a few have seen new life on compact disc. Better wait for the EMI set or look out for the Caedmon, either are better than this pathetic attempt.