Verdict: Sweet, but still harrowing
Contrary to my persistent belief, Oscar Wilde did not say ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’.
It certainly sounds like him, but it was in fact a line from the much lesser-known Victorian man of letters, Charles Caleb Colton.
Even so, it was a sincere form of flattery if not folly for Yasmeen Khan to produce a pastiche of one of Wilde’s best-loved and most-quoted comedies, resetting it in modern ’uddersfield, the northern town that lost its initial letter.
Wilde’s original features a series of improbable mix-ups involving two men sharing the pseudonym Ernest. Khan replaces metropolitan young cards Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff with vain romcom actor Algy (Tom Dixon) and desperate out-of-work thesp Jamil (Gurjeet Singh).
The Importance of Being Earnest
Billed as a very modern take on Oscar Wilde s classic comedy , Yasmeen Khan s North of England-set, Asian-centric distillation, with its slapstick sound effects, fart jokes, double entendres and variable puns, actually feels more like a throwback to 1970s TV sitcom and the
Carry On films. There s even the You Have Been Watching.. closing credits framework as seen in such old BBC bangers as
Are You Being Served and
It Ain t Half Hot Mum.
That s not to say it isn t funny – it mostly is – but references to modern phenomena such as
Peaky Blinders, Instagram followers and diversity, inclusivity.all the bandwagons , in the words of Algernon s manservant Lane, reimagined here by Divina De Campo as a tartly disdainful drag queen PA, feel more puzzlingly out-of-place than the nostalgia for late twentieth century TV comedy and game shows.
The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde updated for the Nando s generation theartsdesk.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theartsdesk.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.