This is a good, clear production, in which the repartee flows right along, except for a big rock in the middle of the stream: Rupert Frazer, far too stuffy and moral for Algernon, and not nearly hungry enough. He becomes a straight man for Jack, in which role Paul McGann, usually a melancholy actor, turns his doleful air into one long, sublimely silly fret. Natalie Ogle is a sweetly fixated Cecily. Amanda Redman has such an abundance of energy some of it comes out as mugging, but in her performance one correctly sees, as Jack foresees, that she probably will become like her mother, as whom Joan Plowright has just the right mixture of dottiness and obtuseness. If it had only had a better Algernon....
Review of The Importance of Being Earnest
