Play delightfully 'Earnest'

"The Importance of Being Earnest," Old Lyric Repertory Company, through Aug. 1, Caine Lyric Theatre, Logan (435-797-8022 or www.boxoffice.usu.edu); running time: 2 hours 5 minutes (two intermissions)

LOGAN — Being "earnest" is defined by Webster's as being sincerely important, receiving serious attention or having sincerity of feeling.

Not many of those words end up being able to fit the production of "The Importance of Being Earnest," the third offering of the summer season by the Old Lyric Repertory Company.

True to its Oscar Wilde roots, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a thinly layered jab at upper-crust British society and the notion of shallow relationships based more on appearance and class than depth of values.

The audience is warmed to the satire by a wonderful, sumptuous set design by Shawn Fisher. The Old Lyric stage is the perfect home for Wilde's witty words, set in the 1890s, and it rises to the occasion.

We are introduced to Algernon Moncrieff (Phillip R. Lowe) and Jack Worthing (Casey Allen), bachelors who love to fling one-liners at one another over everything from marriage prospects to their levels of boredom with common society.

Lowe is smooth as the quite-smarmy Algernon, the flippant English attitudes coming quite natural. In his first major role with the OLRC, Allen is a bit stiffer and tries a bit too hard to be pompous. By play's end, though, Allen warmed to the task and was appreciated by patrons.

In the first scene, the production also presents the first of several, well, theatrical devices to add to the fun.

In this case, it is W. Lee Daily being cast as Lady Bracknell.

Gwendolen Fairfax, being sought for marriage by Worthing, is played by Felicia Stehmeier. Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell firmly present the theme playing under the rapid-fire dialogue, that of position and wealth — and even the music of one's name, in this case "Earnest" — being the most important items to consider in a suitor.

The second act introduces Cecily (Aubrey Campbell), her tutor Miss Prism (Leslie Aldridge) and the Rev. Chasuble (Fred Willicke, in an understated but perfectly done smallish part).

The second stanza also mixes in the comedic dilemma to be unraveled, that two women (Cecily and Gwendolen) both think they are engaged to the same man, he being "Earnest."