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What’s in a name?
Practically every year since 1995, Karachiites have been treated to hilarious comedies in the English language — mostly adult-oriented farces — produced by the OGS to raise funds for scholarships for needy students. This year’s plays took on a slightly different turn in that their comedy could be appreciated by people of all ages; a wise move by the group to veer away from plays which, albeit funny, were beginning to border on the distasteful.
This time round, with Oscar Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest — which has been described by the author himself as “a trivial comedy for serious people” — there was first class wit and humour for all to savour. A long play divided into three acts, it opens in the flat of Algernon Moncrieff (Suleiman Ijaz) where he is waiting to entertain his aunt, Lady Bracknell (Umbereen Beg-Mirza) and cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax (Zainab Jabbar). In comes John Worthing (Kamal Jabbar) a friend who is enamoured by Gwendolen. During the course of their conversation, we discover that the respectable Worthing has a ward, Cecily Cardew (Raaheen Mani) who resides in his country-home in Woolton with a governess, Miss Prism (Maya Ismail) and has created an imaginary no good younger brother, Ernest, who lives in London to justify his frequent trips there.
With Oscar Wilde’s wry sense of humour and ready wit apparent in every other dialogue, the play was bound to be a runaway success. The fact that all the actors did full justice to their roles just helped to cement a foregone conclusion
Posing as Ernest, he wins the affections of Gwendolen who finds the name Ernest extremely confidence-inspiring. However, his proposal is rejected by Lady Bracknell when she discovers that he has no idea of his parentage.Act two opens in the garden of the Manor House in Woolton where Algernon shows up as Ernest out of sheer curiosity and wants to meet his friend’s young and beautiful ward. Sure enough, he falls for her, and since she, in turn, has been secretly in love with the Ernest she has grown up hearing stories about, the feelings are mutual. Meanwhile, John has decided that he has taken his deception far enough and shows up at the Manor House in mourning clothes, pretending he has received news of his brother’s death in Paris.
To add to the complications, act three opens with the arrival of Gwendolen at the Manor House. Just as the ladies discover that no Ernest exists and forgive their beaus for lying to them, Lady Bracknell turns up. But before she can put a spoke in anyone’s wheels, an unexpected discovery is made that brings everyone’s love life to a happy end, and leads to the startling discovery that John had been telling the truth all his life after all.
With Oscar Wilde’s wry sense of humour and ready wit apparent in every other dialogue, the play was bound to be a runaway success. The fact that all the actors did full justice to their roles just helped to cement a foregone conclusion. Most of the cast are by now seasoned actors as they have been performing every year for the OGS — one that hasn’t been mentioned here is Mervyn Hosein who had a relatively minor role this time as the Reverend Canon — and so performed like experienced hands. The newcomers Zainab and Suleiman also performed creditably. Surprisingly, Kamal Jabbar, who has performed for OGS thrice before and is normally flawless, was faltering over his lines quite frequently — though he too, acted well.Worth mentioning were the elaborate sets, making use of large posters as backdrop to depict either book shelves in a library or the back of a house leading to the garden. A great deal of attention had been paid to the costumes — designed by Sonya Batla — which not only boasted the necessary frills and laces typical of the times, but also had the required matching accessories like purses and parasols. Here is hoping that this will become a tradition, delivering sophisticated quality entertainment in the future, too.
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