Playwright: Oscar Wilde
At: Northlight Theatre at the North Shore Center For The Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie
Phone: (847) 673-6300; $32-$48
Runs through: April 25
Oscar Wilde wrote his most popular play, The Importance Of Being Earnest, only after several futile attempts to impose his characteristically witty repartee on the conventional structure of the 'well-made play' then in vogue. Viewed thusly, Lady Windermere's Fan should emerge a drama in which everyone expresses themselves with preternatural eloquence. But audiences in 2004 have come to expect comedy, and only comedy, from Wilde, and commercial interests mandate that they will HAVE comedy—a demand proving nearly fatal to Northlight's production of this rarely performed classic.
The misstep is initiated in the first scene, where we meet Margaret Windermere and Lord Darlington, the latter of whom warns the former that her rigid moral views may soon be challenged. Sure enough, her husband is soon discovered to have been financing the household of a mysterious woman—evidence of infidelity rendering Margaret vulnerable to the comforting attentions of the aforementioned Darlington. But as played by Shawn Douglass, the companion we are to recognize as a libertine with aspirations to becoming a cicisbeo comes off more schoolboyish than seductive, arguing rather than insinuating his affection, his hands twitching nervously. Coming after two scenes replete with throwaway Wildeanisms delivered by players savoring every syllable, the resulting high-artifice ambiance dominates our perception of the social and emotional risks involved in deciding the characters' fates.
The resulting stylistic conflict makes for distracting dissonances as the story's mood caroms between frivolous and serious concerns. Fortunately, as in plays of the period, these resolve themselves in the nick of time, becoming sufficiently compatible by the end of the second act to allow for a happy ending almost Shavian in its pragmatism.
The source of this ambivalence appears to lie with actor-turned-director William Brown's reluctance to favor one tonal aspect of the text over the other in the interests of consistency. Ultimately, however, showmanship wins out, with actors equally experienced in BOTH farce and melodrama deftly walking the line and in doing so, transforming the fragmented action into an integrated whole. These include (but are not limited to) Bruch Reed, Lia Mortensen, John Lister and Tracy Michelle Arnold, whose example is sure to engender improvements as the run continues.