★★★★

Brighton Little Theatre put on this fabulous production of Oscar Wilde’s most enduringly popular play set in 1895.

As bickering bachelors John Worthing J P (Myles Locke) and Algernon Moncrieff (Steven Adams) took afternoon tea in the Manor House Garden, the cheery audience supped on bubbly drinks and snacks alongside – the open air adding to a pleasing sense of being eavesdropping neighbours.

The superb cast of eight had plenty of dialogue which they delivered with the wily wit and sardonic tones required of Wilde’s farcical comedy. Full of hilarious one-liners which resonated to the modern ear, the play mocked the pretensions and hypocrisy of Victorian upper-class society – “It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?” Mr Worthing asked his fiancée on discovering he is Earnest.

“I can, for I feel that you are sure to change,” replied Gwendolen Fairfax (Kitty Fox Davis) who also observed: “In matters of grave importance, style not sincerity is the vital thing.”

Directed by Leigh Ward, there was much attention to contemporary authenticity from the tea sets to the costumes and music in this delightful performance.