Old Play in Manhattan

The Importance of Being Earnest (by Oscar Wilde; produced by the Theatre Guild & John C. Wilson in association with H. M. Tennent, Ltd.) brings John Gielgud back to Broadway for the first time since his Hamlet in 1936. In the interim, the 42-year-old Englishman has played Hamlet at Elsinore, offered British playgoers a cavalcade of the classics, given London a repertory company to rival the Old Vic. For his present visit, Gielgud apparently questioned the importance of being earnest: he would frivol first in Wilde's classic farce, later in Congreve's Restoration comedy, Love for Love.

As of last week, nobody could take exception to his frivolity, for he was giving Wilde's finest play what it sorely needs and seldom gets -- a wonderfully high-styled production. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde tossed rubbishy"realistic" plots out the window to indulge his taste -- and his talent -- for nonsense. With its baby found in a handbag, its imperious dowager who is "a monster without being a myth," its one young man who invents a dissolute brother and its other young man who blithely proceeds to impersonate him, Earnest is often farce at its most absurd.

But it is also farce at its most elegant-- as insolently monocled in manner and as killingly high-toned in language as mischievous tomfoolery can make it. Three-fourths of the fun is lost if its monkeyshines are not performed as gravely as minuets. Actor-Director Gielgud's production, unlike most, is well aware of this. Until near the end of the play (when everyone indulges in a little burlesque), the cast plays with very straight faces and very grand airs; and the effect is delightful.

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