REVIEW BY ELLA CALLOW-SUSSEX
EDITED BY AZMY
It is the first night of Fringe. On the way to Theatre Works I read out the blurb for The Importance of Being Earnest as Performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck to my guest so we could get a sense of what we were about to watch. The blurb proclaimed that “good taste and political correctness fly out the window” and that it was “more rampage than homage”. After reading this my friend joked that means they are going to drop the c-bomb within the first ten minutes. They lost that bet… but only by a few seconds. I leave the theatre an hour later in stitches, with a long list of obscenely funny and distasteful jokes, wide-eyed wondering how I could appropriately write a review for such a gloriously depraved show in a way that doesn’t make the editors think I’ve gone off the deep end.
The Importance of Being Earnest as Performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck is not a faithful adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest — Wilde enthusiasts should beware. This is a no holds barred filth fest that remains raucous and camp all the way through. It follows three actors with dreams of staging The Importance of Being Earnest who seem incapable of sticking to a rehearsal schedule or team etiquette. They bicker and argue about who will play Lady Bracknell, they flip in and out of character to portray the large cast from the original text using only three performers, and they make a lot, and I do mean a lot, of dick jokes. As they get closer to opening night their time on stage keeps getting cut down until eventually, we are treated to a fifteen-minute rendition of The Importance of Being Earnest. As an audience member it feels almost like writer Steven Dawson, who also stars as one of the queens in the work, challenged themselves to be sharper and wittier than Oscar Wilde by saying all the innuendo out loud—and for me at least, it really worked!
As a trio, Steven Dawson, Christopher White and Scott Middleton had great dynamism and precision of movement. I particularly admired their gestural work as they jumped from Bracknell to Jack to Cecily all in a few scenes. Scott Middleton is a robust physical performer with total control in modulating his voice. Despite being cast with some of the largest character shifts, you will never catch him slipping out of the performance. Christopher White is truly hilarious; with an evident knowledge of the original text, he grounds the show in its history. His performance is vicious and relentlessly mean spirited with remarkable presence—watching his facial expressions as Gwendolyn was delightful. Steven Dawson’s comedic timing is perfection, his facial expressions and tone side-splittingly funny. The interior worlds of his character shine through in every moment. There was clearly a force of work done by all the actors, and despite how filthy the material can be, the rollercoaster of gags was in safe hands.
This trio were at their best during the infamous handbag scene where they each take an increasingly absurd shot at the famed line of “a handbag?” There is nothing quite so uproarious as watching three actors try to give notes to each other on delivery, each certain that their take is the best one. The speed at which this show is performed is obviously intentional and a lot of the comedy comes from this, however I did find myself at moments wishing they would slow down a little, as I started missing lines as they got garbled or silenced. This could also be attributed to opening night nerves and the pressure that comes with a 9 pm slot at Fringe. It should be noted that at every instance the actors seamlessly covered for one another; they are clearly professional performers with great command of their audience, so it didn’t affect my experience of the show as a whole. These actors are at the heart of this show and were the main reason that I left admittedly wanting less of The Importance of Being Earnest and more of these three queens and their duck.
The lighting design really impressed me. Given the nature of Fringe no show is ever going to be able to have a fully comprehensive rig, but this was a masterclass in delineating space. With a few carefully placed coloured side and downlights the team was able to clearly delineate space often to hilarious ends. I was particularly taken with how flexible and dynamic the lights were when the cast performed Gwendolyn and Jack’s proposal scene as interpreted through loose representations of the performance’s styles of Berkoff, Kabuki and Chekov. The sound design was similarly effective, not something I was expecting to look out for but despite being simple (read: fart jokes and phone calls) it was well timed and added excitement to the world of the play.
The Importance of Being Earnest as Performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck is a refreshing reminder that being blindly obedient to the canon can be a really bad thing sometimes, and giving yourself permission to blow things up and make a bunch of lewd jokes at the expense of Wilde can be a true delight. As this show gets further into its run it is only set to become more electric, so I would recommend catching it in the next few days if you can. Despite being a late-night performance, the audience was raucous and left energised. This is a joke-a-minute sort of performance with unrelenting savage wit, providing a hilarious, maybe jaw dropping, night out.
Out Cast’s The Importance of Being Earnest as Performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck played September 30th – October 5th at Theatre Works as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
ELLA CALLOW-SUSSEX is a theatre maker and reviewer for the Dialog. She is currently completing a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English/Theatre Studies and Creative Writing.
AZMY (they/them) is a 2nd year Creative Writing student at the University of Melbourne. In their spare time they enjoy watching theatre, playing video games, and thinking about studying.
The Dialog is supported by Union House Theatre.
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