It's the 113th anniversary of Oscar Wilde’s beloved play The Importance of Being Earnest (someone should fact-check that for me). Director Simon is set to debut a new production on stage to a large Fringe audience. There’s just one problem: their lead actor is missing! How can a play without Earnest go ahead? Well, the solution is obvious: improvise the rest of the play with a random audience member selected from the crowd.

The humour and audience engagement of “Earnest?” hinges on Simon's ability to choose the perfect participant for his new ensemble, and he succeeded by recruiting an exceptionally charming and endearing chap to play Earnest on this night. Our new friend is all smiles and nervous giggles as he tries to fill in the gaps left by the absent leading man. The bits where he had to amble across the stage in an oversized waistcoat had me in stitches. The cast are terrifically funny as they steadily become more frantic, exaggerated and over the top in their desperation to keep the scene running smoothly. The chaos gets even more out of hand as the lead actress for Gwendolyn accidentally ingests vast quantities of Jack Daniels, the butler is forced to play multiple characters at once, and the lead actor for Algernon crashes his bicycle. All while overworked stagehand Josh runs back and forth trying to keep the stage intact.

Wilde's original script is a satirical reflection on the tensions between wealth and class, with many playful critiques of social conventions in Victorian England. It's also a play that relishes the use of false identity as a narrative device. As such, the use of audience members as false identities for the actors playing - well, false identities - is quite brilliant. “Earnest?” works wonderfully as a slapstick reinterpretation that keeps a lot of thematic consistency with Wilde's story in its satire of the upper class and posh sensibilities. The real lines from the play are interspersed with clever bits of improv from the cast and new stand-ins; it doesn't diminish Wilde's ingenious, sharp observations, but heightens them with a parody flourish. 

It's also side-splittingly funny. I almost gagged twice from laughing so hard. The cast never misses a beat in wringing humour from the abundant madness. The visual gags and humour are very akin to “The Play that Goes Wrong” with objects constantly breaking and the fourth wall shattering with each new disaster. Things get even more unhinged as the actors drop like flies and more audience members are recruited on stage. In less capable hands, this scenario would be ripe for awkwardness, but the direction is so top-notch that each new addition creates limitless opportunities for comedy. It's chaos so carefully controlled you forget it's all part of the plan.

If you’ve never read or seen Wilde’s play live, you’ll revel in the slapstick and visual mischief. If you are a fan of the play, you’ll love the clever satire and send-ups of the script and characters. “Earnest?” is equal parts loving homage and uproarious parody—an exquisite combination of wit and clever writing with outrageous silliness that elevates the source material. Wilde would be proud.

***** Five Stars