THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST – REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTION AT THE GRAND THEATRE IN LONDON ONT.

Reviewed by James Karas

If you have not seen Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest recently, you should head for London, Ontario to the beautiful Grand Theatre and enjoy an exceptionally fine production of the “perfect play.” The production has a superb cast, gorgeous sets and costumes, and direction with impeccable attention to detail by Alistair Newton.

And, oh yes, the production features Additional Text “On the language of fans” and an extra character but more about that later.

After the “Additional Text”, the curtain opens and we see a shock of green. Everything is green including the costumes worn by Algernon, John, Gwendolyn and Lady Bracknell, but not the servant Lane. It looks great. The next scene in John’s country garden is mostly monochromatic yellow and the set in the final scene inside John’s house is red. This is a beautiful combination of colors, effective and memorable stage design. Kudos to set designer Michelle Tracey.  

James Daly and Julien Galipeau are Algernon and John Worthing who engage in witty dialogue that in some productions appears static. Director Alistair Newton will have none of that. These young men move around, chase each other and display energy that goes along with the witty lines. It is wonderful.

Claire Julien plays a superb Lady Bracknell. She is imperious, dogmatic and commanding. When she finds out where the lost baby was found, she repeats the word handbag almost soto voce but when she sees Miss Prism and barks her name, the poor woman practically jumps out of her clothes. 

Kaylee Harwood as Gwendolen Fairfax, Julien Galipeauas John Worthing, 
Claire Jullien as Lady Bracknell, and James Daly as Algernon Moncrieff. 
Photo: Dahlia Katz

Gwendolyn (Kaylee Harwood) and Cecily (Mirabella Sundar Singh) are a delight to watch and hear. They display energy and they speak their lines without missing a beat of Wilde’s humour. Cecily, the clever daydreamer, keeps a diary of her reveries, including her engagement to Earnest, her guardian John’s brother, whom she has never met. When she meets him, she reprimands him for not writing to her. She had to write his letters herself.

The two ladies get into a verbal scrape and Cecily states her candor by telling Gwendolen that she calls a spade a spade. Gwendolen replies haughtily that she has never seen a spade! Some elite people are more elite than others.

Rev. Canon Chasuble (Ben Sanders who also plays Lane) is lively and jumps with excitement and of course we see budding love between him and the school marmish Miss Prism (Deena Aziz).

I mentioned the energy that director Newton instils in the first scene, he does not stop there and the entire production shows meticulous attention to detail and a sense of the active and comic eliciting laughter. The Importance looks like it can carry a production with competent actors reading the lines, Newton never settles for that and he makes you feel as if it is the first time you are seeing the play.

Now for the additional text by Newton. Before the play begins Miss Prism and Gwendolyn step in front of the curtain and give a lesson on the use of a fan and the messages the user conveys. There is a different message when you hold the fan on your left cheeks and something else when you touch your right cheek. You can convey love or contempt by placing the fan in different positions. All of this is conveyed with vigorous use of large fans and is highly entertaining.

During the performance many of the characters have fans that they use with vigour, sometimes as if they are shields, sometimes like swords, and all to good effect. It is an ingenious addition by Newton without affecting the text at all.

He does affect the text a bit by adding a character called Lady Stella Clinton (Billy Lake who also plays the butler Merriman) who appears on stage and sings a couple of songs and also joins the people sitting in the boxes and bellows for us. Lake gives a riotous performance.

There is some information about her/him in the program and I crib the following about Lady Stella.

Lady Stella Clinton (née Ernest Boulton) performing in drag during the 19^th century. In addition to her onstage performances, Lady Stella also lived and loved as a woman in her daily life. While she is seen portrayed as a drag performer in the production, the Grand Theatre often references her more broadly as a Queer trailblazer to allow for the breadth of her gender-expression and recognize her historical significance. For the full text, of the note, see the program. 

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The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde will run until April 12, 2026, at the Grand Theatre, London, Ontario. grandtheatre.com/event/importance-of-being-earnest

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto