ernestIn this whistlestop musical of The Importance of Being Earnest the pianist did not play any wrong notes.

Wilde’s script has been savagely gutted so that, although the most famous lines remain and earn their usual chuckles, the pace of the play has been deadened and the careful construction of wit has been trampled over with insipid love song after insipid love song. In fact, there are an awful lot of love songs. There is a love song between Jack and Gwendolen, a love song between Algernon and Cecily, and love song between Prism and Chasuble, a big collective love song at the end…

The music is bouncy, the principal theme seeming to have come straight from a CBeebies show. The lyrics are tediously repetitive and pile trite rhyme on trite rhyme – “Could you be happy with someone called Bill? No I think that would make me quite ill” or “Songs were made for singing, bells were made for ringing”. One song’s refrain has Gwen and Cecily sing, “He’s mine, he’s mine, he’s mine, he’s mine, he’s mine, he’s mine he’s mine, he’s mine. Mr Ernest Worthing is mine.” Then they repeat it.

The pace at which the songs are performed is irritatingly slow. The whole show could do with being performed more quickly so that the many repetitions do not seem as frustrating.

No change of expression ever passes across Jack Worthing’s face. Thomas Dawkins keeps him remarkably blank, even when he has just found out that his best friend is his brother and his name is Ernest. Simon Kingsley makes Algernon much more lively and it is from Kingsley that the comic moments come, particularly when he surprises Jack by visiting him in the country.

Drained of its wit, which has been replaced with perfunctory music, this musical Ernest is a sad and lifeless affair, its only saving grace being Matt Abrams’s excellent piano playing.

Ernest; Or Much Ado About Muffins is at C cubed (Venue 16) until 25 August. For more information and tickets visit the EdFringe website.