Starving Artist Production's current presentation of Oscar Wilde's classic The Importance of Being Earnest, one is reminded of an unfinished Swiss watch. Without the sheen of a polished face to make the movement of parts seem effortless, one sees nothing but the grinding of individual gears, each one straining toward cohesion. As a reward for its effort, an attentive audience gets the feeling that it has personally discovered the brilliance in Wilde's throwaway humor. SAP's production, however, seems terrified that the audience is going to miss something. Instead of being delivered with the rapid pace of frivolous conversation, lines are spoken with labored emphasis that gives undivided attention to every potentially comic moment.
Actors spend half their time on stage turning to look at the audience as they speak.
While one can make no mistake that the line is intended to be funny, it becomes difficult to enjoy the humor after having it so assiduously delivered into one's lap. This overtaxed delivery seems to spring from very noble intentions. The metaphor that is recapitulated throughout the production is one of falseness, particularly the duplicity that comes from living in such a willfully vapid society as Victorian England. The best expression of the theme is the casting of College junior Greg Kordsmeier as the matronly Lady Bracknell, a harpish old dame who noses her way into all the lives on stage. This offbeat casting could have been a lovely, silent realization of Director Rick Marson's vision.