Production company Say It Again, Sorry? are taking their play …Earnest? on a madcap dash around UK venues until June when it arrives in Richmond. We caught the show at The Lighthouse, Poole this week.

Based very loosely on the plot of Oscar Wilde's marvellous classic play The Importance of Being Earnest as a starting idea, they have developed this Edinburgh Fringe originated show into something unique that borrows from a host of other comedy ideas. Many will remember how Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game end plays out, which had contestants interacting with actors in short playlets, and they combine this with the offstage tensions of Frayn’s Noises Off, the escalating mayhem of The Play That Goes Wrong and the chaos of a drunk actor from Sh*tfaced Shakespeare. Add to that the feel of an amateur dramatic production as in Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of Disapproval and you will start to understand the scope for complete comic chaos.

It starts as Oscar Wilde intended with Algernon Moncrieff (played by Guido Garcia Lesches playing an actor, Terry) and his butler, Lane (played by Rhys Tees playing the actor, Graham) but when Earnest Worthing (played by Ashley Cavendar playing actor, George) fails to appear on cue, the production is sent spiralling into chaos. The director, producer, casting director and media guru, Simon Slough (brilliantly played by Josh Haberfield) has to stop the show to recast the part from the audience. By the end, seven “willing” volunteers from the audience have been coerced into filling roles in the play as actors are struck down by injury, loss of voice, drunkenness or offstage rows as Simon battles to complete the performance.

Just enough of Oscar Wilde’s original lines remain, such as when Lady Bracknell (played by Judith Amesnga playing actress Eleanor) retorts with the witty line “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune: to lose both looks like carelessness” and of course, the classic response to asking where Earnest was found remains, after much prompting, in “a handbag”. Audience members are provided with their lines in almost every way imaginable, improvisation, stage whispers, script pages, audience shout outs, offstage voiceovers, and idiots cards. Indeed, the funniest moment of the performance that we saw was when an audience member was given a cardboard idiot board to prompt the actor on stage and instead misunderstood and held it towards the audience! It was surprising how few of the conscripted audience members seemed to know the famous play and much of the humour came from the interaction between them and the professionals trying to push the plot along. Josh Haberfield directorial asides from the audience are as quick witted as Wilde himself might have written. When he asks a candidate what his job was and receives the reply “I work in I.T” , he responded: “Is that it?” When an audience member starts to ad lib, he is immediately reminded “don’t break the fourth wall”, ignoring the fact that it tumbled down in the first few minutes.

There is evidence that the show has been extended into a full two-hour running time with some segments laboured and over done like a long casting session for the replacement for Gwendolen (intially played Trynity Silk as the actress, Jennifer), a long merchandising sale sketch to open Act Two, and an inserted scene between audience members playing Miss Prism and Reverend Chasuble with offstage voiceovers. The joke wears thin when you have too much time to reflect on the action and works best when it charges headlong forward. But there are more than enough moments of joyous comedic creation to sustain our interest, many provided by Ben Mann as the ASM Josh in a comic dumb show as he keeps the play on track to complete.

This is a production which will stand a second viewing as it is guaranteed to be different, and there is amusement in seeing how both the professionals and audience members react to one another, plus hearing the localisation that is added into each venue. It is an immersive interactive experience, and great credit must go to the cast for keeping it on track as they hardly stop to catch their breath each night and then rush from one, two or three-night venue visits to the next across the tour. If Oscar Wilde could have seen it, we think he would have enjoyed the chaos and wit, although he may not have recognised his play. The producers will be hoping that it can develop into a long runner in the West End like The Play That Goes Wrong fame, and we think it just might do that.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Nick Wayne

…Earnest? plays at Lighthouse Poole until 1 March before continuing its tour, with further info here.