Our heroine Gwendolen declares "in matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing." So, on account of their ‘style’, the Lady Margaret Players were sure to pass muster from the outset. It is true, there are few plays better suited to college gardens than The Importance of Being Earnest but, staging the performance around a blossoming tree, this production really exploited all the opportunities. The atmosphere was flawlessly constructed. I entered the performance a wet puppy, damp and floundering, despite the myriad arrows and signs littered about for us incapables. But this kerfuffle swiftly dissolved in a complimentary glass of Pimms, the charming setting and the gaggles of gents drowning in blazers, starch and shoe polish. Whether the latter were planted or just the customary product of twenty-something Cambridge folk and the words ‘May’ and ‘Week’, we’ll never know.

The play opened to Johnston’s effortlessly playful Algie Moncrieff. Teasing Jack mercilessly, he sauntered around the stage, perfectly capturing Wilde’s trademark satirising wit. With Jack, there is always a risk of overacting, leaving the audience with a tedious nineteenth-century Basil Fawlty, a painful Mr Bean even. But Mercer worked the character to a perfect degree of ‘inept’. Lady Bracknell too, cannot go without mention. Ball sustained her histrionic gestures, shrill intonation and obnoxious accent with full zeal throughout the performance. The result was that special sort of actress whose every appearance is eagerly awaited by the audience.

It is true that Wilde’s exquisite one-liners guarantee a spattering of chuckles from any audience. But the special success of this production lay in the cast’s ability, without exception, to inflate the characters whose caricature is so elemental to the comedy and to Wilde’s comment on Victorian High Society – its impermeability, its conception of good manners and the very formality that compels our heroes to "go Bunburying".

Support Varsity

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!