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redfiona99The case for the prosecution:
They tried to be clever with Wilde.
Quite frankly, I don't have eyebrows that arch enough to convey quite exactly how foolish I think that is. Don't try to be clever with Wilde, the clever is already in there.
Friend L, who likes this more than I do (not difficult), points out that at least one of the bits they've added was in their originally but Wilde cut it before the play was performed. Now far be it from me to suggest that Oscar Wilde knew what he was doing when he was writing stuff, but, you know, it might have been cut for a reason. I suspect that reason is tonal dissonance.
As for what they do with Lady Bracknell ... I know what they were trying to do, they were trying to play up the satire and hypocrisy, except it's already there and all this does is undercut it with something we know is not realistic. Who here thinks that an army general in, let us be generous and say the 1850s, who got a dancing girl pregnant would marry her? Anyone? No. I don't either. It just doesn't work.
The scene itself:
Why the scene is so good:
The scene is a complete invention but at least ties back into Algernon's musical interests.
And is funny. I am very forgiving for funny. (Possibly that was the problem with the other inventions, they weren't funny or witty or amusing.)
It's a mixture of things: the staff carrying the piano around the house. The plaintive singing. Gwendoline and Cecily's responses. The look on the footman's face of "my employer is an idiot". It's enjoyable and silly in the way the Importance of Being Earnest is supposed to be and in the way this version isn't often enough.
(End note: yes, I did see the Michael Redgrave version at a vulnerable age, and yes, I remain utterly saddened that no man has yet lived up to Algernon. A great many of my problems probably come from imprinting on Algernon.)
(End note part 2: Yes, I have also seen it staged far too often. This remains the least good version I've seen, and that includes a cracking Am Dram version by the local theatre group, which had an amazing Lane. St Helens's Am Dram group when I was growing up were remarkably good as a whole, including producing what remains my favourite version of The Merry Widow.)
They tried to be clever with Wilde.
Quite frankly, I don't have eyebrows that arch enough to convey quite exactly how foolish I think that is. Don't try to be clever with Wilde, the clever is already in there.
Friend L, who likes this more than I do (not difficult), points out that at least one of the bits they've added was in their originally but Wilde cut it before the play was performed. Now far be it from me to suggest that Oscar Wilde knew what he was doing when he was writing stuff, but, you know, it might have been cut for a reason. I suspect that reason is tonal dissonance.
As for what they do with Lady Bracknell ... I know what they were trying to do, they were trying to play up the satire and hypocrisy, except it's already there and all this does is undercut it with something we know is not realistic. Who here thinks that an army general in, let us be generous and say the 1850s, who got a dancing girl pregnant would marry her? Anyone? No. I don't either. It just doesn't work.
The scene itself:
Why the scene is so good:
The scene is a complete invention but at least ties back into Algernon's musical interests.
And is funny. I am very forgiving for funny. (Possibly that was the problem with the other inventions, they weren't funny or witty or amusing.)
It's a mixture of things: the staff carrying the piano around the house. The plaintive singing. Gwendoline and Cecily's responses. The look on the footman's face of "my employer is an idiot". It's enjoyable and silly in the way the Importance of Being Earnest is supposed to be and in the way this version isn't often enough.
(End note: yes, I did see the Michael Redgrave version at a vulnerable age, and yes, I remain utterly saddened that no man has yet lived up to Algernon. A great many of my problems probably come from imprinting on Algernon.)
(End note part 2: Yes, I have also seen it staged far too often. This remains the least good version I've seen, and that includes a cracking Am Dram version by the local theatre group, which had an amazing Lane. St Helens's Am Dram group when I was growing up were remarkably good as a whole, including producing what remains my favourite version of The Merry Widow.)
