Review: The Importance of being Earnest

Looking for something to make you laugh this week? Then I can recommend going to see The Importance of Being Earnest at Theatre Royal Windsor.

I confess, I didn't know too much about the famous comedy by Oscar Wilde, but I'm a huge fan of Kerry Ellis, leading lady of the West End and Broadway, so hearing she was in it, I thought I would go and check it out in it.

And wow, I loved it. It made me smile from start to finish.

As the play opens in a house in London, we are introduced to Algernon (Downton Abbey favourite Thomas Howes) – instantly likeable – who discovers his friend, Ernest (Peter Sandys-Clarke – The Charles Dickens Show, The Royals, The Crown), is, in fact, called Jack. Their boyish good humour and chemistry on stage grips you from the word go.

Algernon finds it hilarious that Jack has made up the fictitious character of Ernest as an alibi to escape the monotony of his days in the country, thereby leading a double life as Ernest in London. Algernon calls him a Bunburyist. Algernon himself admits to Bunburying, as he has an imaginary friend called Bunbury, an invalid, whose made up illness is used as an excuse for Algernon to avoid social engagements.

Jack wishes to marry Algernon’s cousin, the beautiful Gwendolen (Kerry Ellis), and when she and Lady Bracknell (national treasure Gwen Taylor – Corronation Street, Duty Free) arrive, Jack proposes. Gwendolen accepts him, admitting she is infatuated with the name Ernest.

I'd last seen Kerry Ellis live at the London Hippodrome back in 2016, singing songs from all the roles she has played over the years. She has been brilliant in all of them, and she is as convincing as ever as Gwendolen in this comedy masterpiece.

The fearsome Lady Bracknell interviews 'Ernest' on his suitability to be her son-in-law – which was one of my favourite scenes, making me laugh out loud. He must convince her of the respectability of his parents and his past, but for Jack, this is not easy, having started life abandoned in a handbag at Victoria station. Lady Bracknell is adamant the marriage cannot take place.

When Jack arrives back at his home in the country, he decides to kill off his scandalous alibi brother, only to find Algernon is there pretending to be Ernest! Jack is forced to play along, resulting in ever-increasing confusion. Algernon falls in love and proposes to Jack's ward, Cecily, and she accepts him, admitting she is obsessed with the name Ernest.

Both men decide they now have to be christened as Ernest.

Things become even more complicated when Gwendolen arrives in the country and both women discover they are supposed to be marrying Ernest... but Ernest does not exist! The men are forced to admit to their Bunburying, but will Jack find out how he came to be in a handbag at Victoria Station as a baby? Will they resolve their issues with their darling women if their names aren't actually Ernest? Hilarity ensues throughout, and the play keeps you guessing right till the end.

It was a fantastic evening – I thoroughly enjoyed the wicked sense of humour of the two male protagonists. And it's made me wonder if we all need a friend called Bunbury, to get us out of all manner of things we don't want to do! Whatever you've got on this week, cancel it, saying you have to go and meet your friend Bunbury to watch this not-to-be-missed play at the Theatre Royal Windsor.

Tickets from £16

On until Saturday 5th May at 8pm

Also Thursday and Saturday at 2.30pm.