See how important it is to be Earnest

How important is it to be earnest? How important is it to be honest? How important is it to enjoy a night of community theatre, either in person or by downloading it to view at home?

Very important is the last answer.

Find out for yourself from the comfort of your home by scheduling watching "The Importance of Being Earnest" or see it in person in Oak Harbor's Whidbey Playhouse the next two weekends, through Feb. 27.

Oscar Wilde was a subtle wit in an age of proper decorum.

He would probably be perfectly at home in our 21st century social media world where it seems that nothing is off limits and everything can be exposed, literally.

Modern audiences might have a harder time with “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People,” as he subtitled his play.

Wilde both says nothing while saying a lot and says a lot while signifying nothing.

So Lady Bracknell (Ingrid Schwalbe) literally sizes up Cecily, telling the 18-year-old “There are distinct social possibilities in your profile.

The two weak points in our age are its want of principle and its want of profile.” Truth is lacking and the pursuit is in a person’s appearance and how they carry themselves.

Sounds similar to our lives today.

What to say about two upper crust eminently eligible Londoners living lives of foolish leisure? Watch them waltz through three acts to find, if not true love, the partners they believe are their perfect matches because each fits in, prim and proper in society.

Algernon (Jim Waters) escapes the city, “Bunburying,” with the deception that he has to attend his chronically sick imaginary friend, Bunbury. Jack (Andrew Huggins) has an 18 year old ward, Cecily (Marianne Campos) living at his country estate. He escapes to London to visit his ne’er-do-well, non-existent brother, Earnest – of course. Cecily, hearing tales of Earnest’s dastardly deeds, creates a romance with him in her diary. She just needs him to walk into the garden, which Algenon does.

In 1890s London Jack, er, Earnest, has his heart set on Gwendolen (Shealyn Christie). She tells him “We live … in an age of ideals. … and my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence.” She will love Jack, as long as he is Earnest. In fact, that is the only thing he has to be, besides born into higher society, which he already is.

Everyone toggles back and forth between a deadpan straightness and a wink-wink, close to over-the-top delivery of their aphorisms – witty sayings with meaning.

Algernon and Jack have an easy casualness, with themselves and each other. They are smug, certain of their superior lives. The play opens with Algernon lounging on a couch as his stoic servant Lane (Rod Todd) delivers every line deadpan, as smoothly as he serves tea.

“I hope tomorrow will be a fine day, Lane.”

“It never is, sir.”

“Lane, you're a perfect pessimist.”

“I do my best to give satisfaction, sir.”

There is a butler (Ben Honeycutt) and housekeeper (Lisa Judd) at the country estate, properly in the background, serving or dusting. A bumbling country parson (Rev. Chasuble, Gary Gillespie) and a buttoned up governess (Miss Prism, Allenda Jenkins), both with barely repressed sexual longings round out the cast.

Best to say sit back and listen intently for one liners, such as Jack offering “It is a terrible thing to learn a man has been speaking nothing but the truth his entire life.”

Everything and everyone comes together in the last scene under the able direction of Tamara Sykes. The sets, costumes and accents are properly 19th century British. The actors hit their lines and the pacing moves the action forward without a moment of hesitancy.

You will have to see for yourself.

Sue Riney is the producer.

Live this weekend and next, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Or see online anytime starting Feb. 18 The two hour play has two intermissions. Tickets are $18. whidbeyplayhouse.com/shows. The file takes some time to download.