Sept. 26, 2002 – The next Pistarckle Theater production, Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest," opens next Thursday with the traditional "pay as you can" night and is booked for an 11-performance run on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays throughout October.
The play has gotten lots of popular exposure of late thanks to the recent, and largely well-received, Oliver Parker film version starring Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench, Frances O'Connor and Reese Witherspoon.
Pistarckle's production features Scottie Brower, Christina Harper, Fred Hintz, Rose Jensen, Tom LaPierre, Ginny Peck, Peter Schiron, Alison Steir and Bob Zukowski. It's being directed by Holli Hornlien, an actress and director from Spokane, Washington, who has become a regular collaborator with the St. Thomas theater company.
Wilde's play, draped around mistaken identity in a high-society English setting, is a comedy of manners and morals of those to the manor born.
As cinema critic Roger Ebert points out in his review the film, Wilde's work "is above all an exercise in wit. There is nothing to be learned from it, no moral, no message." It is, he elaborates, "a comedy constructed out of thin air. It is not really about anything. There are two romances at the center, but no one much cares whether the lovers find happiness together. Their purpose is to make elegant farce out of mistaken identities, the class system, mannerisms, egos, rivalries, sexual warfare and verbal playfulness."
But there is, of course, a story line. Jack Worthing, bored to bits in his country manse, has invented a big-city brother, Ernest (without an "a"), who provides an excuse for him to escape from the boonies and boogie in town. Algernon Moncrieff — can there be a more memorable name? — meanwhile has conjured up a country friend, Bunbury, to give him an excuse to get out of town and unwind with pastoral partying.
The fun begins when their paths, and those of their respective romantic interests, Gwendolyn Fairfax and Cecily Cardew, inevitably cross and the plot thickens — although not to the point of turning serious, of course. "This exuberant parody has never failed to convulse audiences throughout the English-speaking world," a Pistarckle flyer says.
Pistarckle Theater is located in Tillett Gardens. Curtain time is 8 p.m. for all shows, with the doors opening half an hour before. Performances are every Thursday, Friday and Saturday in October except for Oct. 19.
For the Oct. 3 pre-opener, patrons are asked literally to pay whatever amount they are able to come up with as the price of admission. Official opening night is Oct. 4.
Tickets for all performances but the first are $15 in advance and $19 at the door for general admission, $15 for students and $12 for teachers. They are being sold at the American Yacht Harbor office, Bumpa's, The Draughting Shaft, East End Secretarial Services, Flagship, Marina Market and Tillett Gallery. They may be reserved using a charge card by calling Pistarckle at 775-7877.
Pistarckle artistic director Nikki Emerich asked that subscribers, donors and Flex-pass holders reserve their dates ahead to ensure that their seats will be held up until 10 minutes before show time.

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