![](https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/3697_1568719470.jpg)
Show: A Woman of No Importance
Society: Richmond Theatre (professional)
Venue: Richmond Theatre, 1 Little Green, Richmond, Surrey
Credits: By Oscar Wilde. Produced by Classic Spring Theatre Company
Type: Sardines
Author: Chris Abbott
Performance Date: 16/09/2019
A Woman of No Importance
Chris Abbott | 17 Sep 2019 10:34am
After an interesting visit to the Richmond Theatre open day on Sunday, including a fascinating if lengthy account of the history of the 120-year-old theatre that evening, I was surprised to see that A Woman of No Importance was due to open the following day. Perhaps the company were surprised at the limited time available for get-in too as the audience were still waiting in the foyer well after the advertised start time. The hold-up presumably related to lighting, as various cast members seemed unlit at points, though this will I am sure be remedied for the rest of the week.
The production, although mostly recast, was seen in the West End in 2017 as the opening play in Classic Spring Theatre Company’s Oscar Wilde season. Classic Spring have the admirable aim of presenting the work of proscenium playwrights in the theatres for which they wrote, and this play and Richmond Theatre are almost the same age, the play having been first produced just six years before the theatre opened.
Four-act plays present problems these days of course, and there is little appetite for multiple intervals. With this in mind, the necessary time between acts while the set is being changed is covered by a series of songs. In the original production this fell to Anne Reid but with Roy Hudd in the small role of the Rev Daubeny, he was clearly the best choice for the period songs. Indeed, his songs were one of the most entertaining parts of the evening although they seemed totally out of keeping with the rest of the production, both in content and in breaking the fourth wall to engage with the audience. And if not all his lines were quite those written by Oscar Wilde, the audience did not mind.
It was something of a relief to have a song after the first very static act of this play, which is not Wilde at his dramatic best. The familiar lines come thick and fast, always well delivered, but there is a feeling of being at a recital of aphorisms rather than a play with a narrative. The situation improved from act two onwards with the development of the story of Mrs Arbuthnot and the man who wronged her, Lord Illingworth. With the heartfelt and impassioned Katy Stephens as the wronged woman and Mark Meadows as the dastardly peer, this central conflict was gripping and believable, with both actors taking their characters beyond the stereotypes they could so easily have become.
Tim Gibson was a suitably confused and conflicted Gerald and a large cast did their best despite many of them having little character development or plot to become engaged with. Isla Blair and Liza Goddard lead this cast as a couple of county ladies with time on their hands, and John Bett provides the best cameo seen in many a year; a lovely example of making much from little, whether this is repetitive dialogue or surreptitious entrances and exits.
It’s good to see Classic Spring taking their mission on tour, although it is a little perplexing that they chose one of Wilde’s less effective plays as their first. Let us hope some of the other Wilde productions seen at the Vaudeville will soon be making their way to the regions, as well as the Classic Spring productions of Frankenstein and Dracula announced for Hackney Empire.
- : admin
- : 16/09/2019