It’s not The Importance of Being Earnest which is coming to the New Theatre Royal Portsmouth from November 9-12.
It’s The Importance of Being … Earnest? You pause for the dots and then tilt your head and say the word Earnest almost as a question in itself.
It’s The Importance of Being … Earnest? You pause for the dots and then tilt your head and say the word Earnest almost as a question in itself.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Fantastic
00:06 this morning to be speaking to Guido. Now Guido has just practised me in how to pronounce
00:11 the title, how to say the title. You are bringing the importance of being earnest...
00:19 Very nice, with a cock in the head, yeah, yeah.
00:22 Future actor here. Bringing the importance of being earnest to Portsmouth's Heath Theatre
00:28 Royal in November. Now it sounds an intriguing piece. You described it as being surreal and
00:36 insane. How does it work? What's the gist?
00:41 Well it's a traditional production of the importance of being earnest that people know
00:47 and love until the lead actor doesn't show up. So we cast an audience member to come
00:53 on stage with us and do the entire play, the entire Oscar Wilde play with us.
00:58 And the point is you find someone who's willing. If you're in the audience and don't want to
01:03 do it, all you have to do is look down.
01:05 100%. It's very safe, we're very nice. It's never about putting people on the spot. It's
01:10 the opposite. We want to make someone the star of the show. So if you don't want to
01:14 do that, that's perfectly fine. I assure you someone will come up who will enjoy it. So
01:20 it's all safe. It's very nice.
01:24 And that person who comes up, they have the best seat in the house you were saying in
01:29 effect.
01:30 Yeah, I mean that is the experience. It's being the star of the show for a night. And
01:34 so we're here to celebrate whoever comes up with us and try to play together and try to
01:40 create something magical for one night only. And people think they are a plant but they're
01:46 not. It's truly different and magical every night.
01:49 Don't you guys want to be the stars of the show then? That's very generous to allow
01:54 you to do that.
01:55 It is, but that's our business. Yeah, I know. I know what you mean. But no, it's the whole
02:00 ethos of the company is kind of democratising the art making and kind of breaking those
02:07 barriers between the audience and the performance and not having that kind of rigid fourth wall
02:14 of like, we're here and you're there. It's like, no, whatever happens tonight, we're
02:18 going to build together and we're going to have fun. And we'll see what comes out at
02:23 the other end, essentially.
02:24 By the end of the evening, will we think, yes, we have seen the importance of being
02:28 earnest?
02:29 You have seen a version of Oscar Wilde for sure. Yeah. And hopefully, if well, I think
02:40 if you already know and love the play, you'll take a lot out of it because a lot of the
02:44 Oscar Wilde is still there. And I think if you haven't seen the play and you don't know
02:48 it, you will still have a ball of a time because it's a chaotic and crazy experience that probably
02:56 will only happen that night. And it will be completely different the next day.
03:01 If anyone pokes a finger at you and says Oscar is turning in his grave, you take the view
03:05 that he would rather enjoy this.
03:07 I think he would love it. I think Oscar was a cheeky guy and he was up for kind of tearing
03:15 down barriers as well and making fun of all these kind of structures that we have in place.
03:21 So I think he would actually enjoy what we're doing with his work. But who knows? The Oscar
03:26 Wilde Society has endorsed us and enjoyed the show as well. So that's something to go
03:33 on, I guess.
03:34 Fantastic. Well, I'm very much looking forward to seeing it in Portsmouth, but I promise
03:36 you I will be absolutely head down.
03:39 Fair enough.
03:40 Thank you ever so much. Really nice to speak to you.
03:43 Thank you so much, Phil.
03:44 Lovely to speak to you too.