And so, by staging 'The Importance of Being Earnest' on an electric pink set under the shadow of an enormous handbag with an all-male cast, director/designer David Fielding has drawn a new, queer dimension out of this much-loved play. Buttered muffins The subtext was always there, carefully concealed within the clever wording, but is often lost when the play is framed as a politer comedy of manners. Phallic cucumbers emblazoned across the walls, men in skirts and the medley of gay anthems that rings out during the two intervals leave little to the imagination. Against such a backdrop anything goes. The leading gentlemen coquettishly tease each other then bicker like girls whilst their amorous interests scrap like burly men. Gender boundaries slip their moorings and subtler references to buttered muffins take on a suggestive patina. Oscar Wilde peppered his plays with knowing allusions to homosexuality, lost on his Victorian audiences.
 | | The leading gentlmen tease one another |
The name Cecily was a euphemism for a male prostitute and the silver cigarette case that appears early in the first act was a token of affection that Oscar would often give to his young charges. In today's more open times, it seems only appropriate to let such innuendo breathe. Wilde, whose visage is emblazoned across the ceiling, would wholeheartedly approve. Earnest Ernests Jack (an excellent Christopher Staines) and Algernon (the elastic-legged James Frost) are two young coves with double identities enabling them to flit between town and country as they please. Matters become complicated when Jack falls for Algy's cousin Gwendolen (Simon Trinder) and Algy for Jack's ward Cecily (Joseph Chance), with both men masquerading under the name Ernest. When Gwendolen and Cecily mistakenly believe they are both engaged to the same Ernest, the result is a scene of sublime, side-splitting comedy. Joseph Chance's Cecily has shades of the Little Britain 'I'm a lady' transvestite with her dainty clothes and flowing locks whilst Simon Trinder's Gwendolen is a more calculating and snobbish city girl. Pregnant pauses and artful poses with cigarettes make blinking wasted time during this unmissable clash of personalities. Both lapse into their male voices as the aggression boils beyond ladylike constraints. Trinder's precise movements across the stage and facial mannerisms in particular are a delight to watch. As they both depart to Cecily's line 'Men are so cowardly aren't they?' (now imbued with new meaning), the audience applauds appreciatively. If ever there was a character to inspire such a bold step as an all-male casting then Lady Bracknell and her signature 'a handbag?' exclamation must jolly well be it. Arguably more panto than Widow Twanky and the ugly sisters rolled-into-one, Michael Fitzgerald's grande dame was as formidable as could be hoped for, squeezed into a large basque and enunciating every syllable. It was a joy to watch the cast cower as Fitzgerald entered to the imposing strains of Beethoven's Fifth. Do not be fooled, the real pantomime season arrives at the Bristol Old Vic in December with Aladdin. In the meantime, Fielding's camp retake on an old classic lets the gay genie out of Wilde's lamp wonderfully. The Importance of Being Earnest is on at Bristol Old Vic until 28 May. | 
