The curtain rises on Ncuti Gatwa (Dr. Who) wearing a bright pink gown. He mimes playing piano for a crowd of drag queens and kings. Then performs a strip tease. This scene does not exist in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Director Max Webster invented it for the National Theatre from whole cloth. It suggests we’ll be seeing a wild queer adaptation. Sadly, once he’s changed into his suit, Wilde’s text is played relatively straight.

The play concerns two disreputable men (Gatwa and Hugh Skinner) who woo two respectable women (Eliza Scanlen and Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́). Skinner’s background is questioned by Adékọluẹ́jọ́’s imperious mother (Sharon D. Clarke). Deceptions and complications ensue. Critics still praise Wilde’s wordplay and his skewering of social hypocrisy. After sitting through multiple renditions, I find the play repetitive and a little tired.

Earnest premiered on February 14, 1895 at the St. James Theatre in London. It was considered the pinnacle of Wilde’s career. But a scandal was brewing off stage. The Marquess of Queensberry had attempted to confront Wilde. His son, Lord Alfred Douglas, was Wilde’s lover. Queensberry had recently lost his eldest son Francis under shady circumstances after Francis’s affair with Prime Minister Rosebery was exposed. He was determined to rescue Alfred from Wilde’s clutches. He would publicly accuse Wilde of sodomy, leading to a court case that would send Wilde to prison.

There’s no easy way to incorporate this drama into Wilde’s farce. Webster hints at bisexual attraction between the characters. But never truly explores it. There have been productions that have gender swapped, or cast roles in drag, but these cannot reflect the lives of queer people in 1895.

Ncuti Gatwa is serviceable in the play’s showiest role. Sharon D. Clarke is suitably terrifying. Eliza Scanlen and Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ play their roles too similarly. Their dual romances lack the necessary contrast. Hugh Skinner’s grounded turn is the glue that holds it together. He’s the only one with something resembling an arc and stakes.

The play is a fine production for newcomers. I’m being obstinate. The drag queens return for a raucous curtain call. I found it a waste to store them in the wings. I’d rather they were incorporated into the play somehow. It would have shaken up a story that has lost its bite.

The National Theatre is screening Earnest in cinemas worldwide. It will eventually be posted on their streaming service. You can find more of my reviews on The Avocado, Letterboxd and Serializd. My podcast, Rainbow Colored Glasses, can be found here.