THEATER REVIEW : ‘Earnest’ Attempt Captures Oscar Wilde’s Social Satire

When Oscar Wilde said “There is no sin except stupidity,” he might well have had most dimwitted American productions of his “The Importance of Being Earnest” in mind. But the staging at A Noise Within is no ordinary Victorian froth fest. This one does the gentleman quipster proud.

Co-directed by Sabin Epstein and Art Manke, this astute and well-crafted interpretation is more than up to the Glendale classical repertory company’s enviable par. Yet it’s not as straight a production as their usual: Wilde’s 1894 classic may be wearing period duds, but it’s also got one finely clad footsie in modern times.

Because this comedy of manners is ostensibly about a couple of chaps in pursuit of a couple of birds, it’s often staged as little more than an innocently saccharine romp. But Wilde’s cynical roundelay is actually a trenchant satire of social mores, and this cheeky company knows it.

The point of Algernon Moncrieff and John Worthing’s dissembling, after all, isn’t so much to enable them to make their matches as it is to point up the hypocrisies of polite society. Here, the cads Algy and Jack seem less enamored of the women they’re after than of the tangled webs they weave while in pursuit--not to mention each other’s witty company.

And what seems is, after all, what really matters. Epstein and Manke bring the play’s gay subtext to the surface without sacrificing the comedy’s other concerns. Algy may appear wildly foppish, but he has the last laugh on a deeply closeted society. This is a brisk production that understands, as the script puts it, that “style, not sincerity” is the thing.

The playing is aptly stagy and self-conscious, but never camp. Worthing and Moncrieff are acted with cunning and alacrity by company artistic co-directors Geoff Elliott and Manke. The wooed women are Gwendolen (arch Jenna Cole) and Cecily (bubbly but not bubble-headed Gail Shapiro). And the four spouses-to-be are surrounded by a stellar ensemble lead by June Claman’s perfectly abrasive Lady Bracknell and Dierk Torsek’s deadpan Merriman.

The drawing room convocations and garden gatherings take place on a raked stage that angles back toward a giant fuchsia and black portrait of Wilde. Beyond that, designer Bill Eigenbrodt uses only four gold chairs to establish the settings, and that’s all that’s needed. Roxanne Femling’s costumes are lush, if a bit too cartoony in a few cases, especially given that the audience sits close enough to see the detail. Guy Beck’s daring wigs make some company regulars nearly unrecognizable, and Chris Grant’s lights and Kem Hauge’s music add elegant touches.

* “The Importance of Being Earnest,” A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Friday, Nov. 18, 27, Dec. 1-2, 4, 8, 10, 8 p.m.; Nov. 21, Dec. 12, 7 p.m.; Nov. 13, 28, Dec. 5, 11-12, 2 p.m. Ends Dec. 12. $15. (closing night with reception, $20.) (818) 546-1449. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.