State Theatre Company
Dunstan Playhouse
Tue, 12 May, 2026

A version of this famous play was a great success at Adelaide’s recent Fringe festival because it took risks. This wonderful version of Oscar Wilde’s timeless classic is also a great success for much the same approach – they take risks that come off. Principal among these risks was to have men play female roles, and vice versa. This not only served to flag the contemporary fascination with fluid interpretations of gender, but was also a salute to Oscar Wilde who in the late nineteenth century, was much criticised and even jailed for his sexual orientation.

The Importance of Being Earnest is wordy – rich with nuance, articulate, and full of biting comic satire. But from the opening scene the actors are on point – decisive, clear, bold. Their command of Wilde’s language was extraordinary. As professionals of a state theatre company you’d think that would always be so, but it’s not. This cast was exceptional in that regard – diction pretty much perfect.

The early scene between Algernon (Algie) and Jack is priceless and so beautifully done. Knowing full well that Jack is lying Algie takes great delight in asking Jack questions that slowly but surely has him digging his own grave. It’s masterful comedy with both players fighting fiendishly to win the verbal stoush. Anna Lindner is simply magnificent as Algie. She prowls and prances around the stage like a predatory clown willing to pounce on any weakness. Teddy Dunn is also really impressive as Jack as he hopelessly defends the indefensible but refuses to yield and somehow manages to maintain a semblance of dignity.

Into the fray strides Lady Bracknell.  Played by Glenda Linscott she is almost charming as a pompous disapproving elderly matriarch with extremely strong opinions about good breeding and maintaining one’s social status. Any principals she may have however are quickly put aside if there is wealth or status to be gained.

Nathan O’Keefe is positively and benignly ridiculous as Miss Prism but his awkward appearance just adds to the humour of it all. And The Importance of Being Earnest is a very funny play. There are digs and asides at accepted values littered throughout and you need to be on the ball to catch them all. Romance, marriage, truth, fashion, and the upper classes are all targets for Wilde’s sharp wit.

There were other ploys to modernise this nineteenth century gem. Check out the cast’s footwear. More obviously, Director Petra Kalive has Adelaide based cabaret and rock singer Carla Lippis sings her parts as manservant and butler as a prelude to each new scene and it works wonderfully well.  Her powerful, raunchy delivery a fitting contrast to some of the suppressed sentiments beneath the surface of polite society in 1895.

Interestingly Wikipedia notes that this play was criticised at the time for “its lack of social messages.” I think rather that it is overflowing with social messages and probably offended a good many at the time. This was so often Wilde’s objective – to set the cat among the pigeons as it were; to expose hypocrisy, and question everything. That’s what The Importance of Being Earnest does, and that’s why it deserves a modern audience. It’s deservedly a classic and still thoroughly entertaining.

Simply great theatre with superb characterisations and lively, witty banter.

This review also published on The Clothesline.

For something completely different try this review of another version of Earnest.