You are hereby invited to dine in elegance whilst savoring the equally delectable delights of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest as The 413 Project Theater serves up high tea dinner and a show at Pasadena’s Madeline Gardens, as appetizing an evening of Oscar as any Wilde fan could possibly wish for.

 Meet lovely young Londoner Gwendolen Fairfax (Caroline Pitts), whose “ideal has always been to love someone of the name Earnest,” so much so that her beau Earnest Worthing (Kyle DeCamp) dare not let it slip that his given name is one he himself has given his London persona, his real name Jack being reserved for the rest of his life in the Hertfordshire countryside.

 Though Gwendolen’s mother Lady Augusta Bracknell (Tamarah Ashton) approves of the young man’s occupation (smoking) and his fortune (considerable), she nixes any thought of matrimony upon learning that “Earnest” started life as a foundling, abandoned in a handbag in Victoria Station to be raised without the slightest knowledge of his parentage.

 “Earnest” is not the only young gentleman leading une double vie in Wilde’s classic romcom of manners. Just as Jack has concocted a wicked “brother” whose jams offer the straighter-laced sibling an excuse to visit London, his best chum (and Gwendolen’s cousin) Algernon Moncrieff (Noah Khyle) has fabricated an invalid friend named “Bunbury,” to whose aid he must rush whenever he feels the urge to escape from yet another tiresome evening with boring relations.

 When talk of Jack’s young ward Cecily Cardew (Annabelle Borke) piques Algernon’s curiosity, he heads countryward to meet the fair maiden, posing as the ne’er-do-well “Earnest” only to discover that like Gwendolen, Cecily has set her eyes on marrying a man by that name and no other.

Enter country rector Reverend Chasuble (Eric Ryan), more than happy to christen both young gentlemen Earnest so long as it doesn’t keep him away too long from Cecily’s frazzled governess Miss Laetitia Prism (Angela Beyer), with whom he is smitten.

As Shakespeare put it (though not nearly as wittily as Wilde surely would have), “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

 Earnest’s tasty Wildisms (“To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” “No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.”) are matched at Pasadena’s Madeline Gardens by the high tea dinner* being served three dozen invited guests, adding up to theater at its savoriest and most unique.

 Some antique tables, chairs, and divans are all that’s needed to transform the Gardens’ elegant salon into a London flat and an English country house-and-garden peopled by a terrific cast of actors under Borke’s sparkling, witty direction.

DeCamp’s ebullient Jack and Pitts’ vivacious Gwendolyn, and Kkyle’s cosmopolitan Algernon and Borke’s sparkling Cecily make for two of Victorian England’s most irresistible couples with Ashton going just far enough over the top to make her Lady Bracknell an imperious delight.

 Ryan’s unabashedly romantic Dr. Chasuble and Beyer’s deliciously dotty Miss Prism do their own scene stealing as the most unexpected of soulmates, and James Borke’s butler Merriman butles with the best of them.

Pitch-perfect period costumes and props and some clever music cues add to the theatrical magic being made at the Madeline.

 The Importance Of Being Earnest is produced by Julie Burlington. Delaney Chase is stage manager.

I’ve seen a bunch of Earnests over the past twenty years but never one with as unique a setting or served with as appetizing a repast as the one now tantalizing taste buds at The Madeline Gardens. The 413 Project Theater’s The Importance Of Being Earnest is easily the most mouthwatering theatrical meal in town.

The 413 Project Theater at The Madeline Gardens, 1030 E Green St, Pasadena.
www.the413project.org

–Steven Stanley
June 1, 2018

*Tomato bisque, assorted tea sandwiches and savories (cucumber sandwich, smoked salmon sandwich, chicken and mushroom risotto), cream scone with clotted cream and jam, and
crème brûlée and more for dessert.

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Oscar Wilde, The 413 Project Theater, The Madeline Gardens