Fresh take on a Wilde classic

Arguably Oscar Wilde’s finest comic creation, The Importance Of Being Earnest’s Lady Bracknell is also one of theatre’s most prized roles for actresses of ‘a certain age’.

Septuagenarian performers like Dame Judi Dench and Edith Evans have previously breathed life into the cantankerous character.

But the Darlinghurst Theatre’s upcoming adaptation of the 1895 play will see acclaimed film, television and theatre actor Linda Cropper as Bracknell.

With Cropper currently playing Asher Keddie’s funky baby boomer mum on Channel 10’s hit show Offspring, isn’t she a few decades too young to be playing one of theatre’s most deliciously grand old dames?

“People think Lady Bracknell is this really dowager old woman, but remember — her daughter Gwendolyn’s only 20. So she’s the mother of a 20-year-old girl, she’s not that old,” Cropper explained to Sydney Star Observer.

“In fact, I’m kind of the right age for it. But everybody thinks of the actresses like Judi Dench who’ve played her, and brought more of a grandmotherly look to it.”

So while this Nicholas Papademetriou-directed production sticks more closely to the source material in regards to casting, it also veers away from the traditional staging, setting the play in the 1930s, rather than Victorian-era Britain.

“It gives a whole different take to the play. It’s more relaxed, dare I say a bit sexy,” Cropper said.

“We wanted to give it a bit of a new slant and make it more accessible to a modern audience. It’s exactly the same script, but with a bit of a new look.”

And Cropper, too, will be carving out her own unique take on Lady Bracknell, a character blessed with some of Wilde’s most sparkling dialogue.

“She’s certainly got some withering put-downs, which are delightful. I’m trying to underplay them though — to get away from that whole dragon, drag queeny kind of thing. I’m trying for something more sophisticated and less obvious.”

Underneath the wit and verve of Wilde’s wordplay, Cropper said she still saw real relevance in the play’s themes for today’s audiences.

“One of my lines is ‘We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces’. That’s still very true today.”

info: The Importance of Being Earnest plays at the Darlinghurst Theatre from October 7-November 7. Visit www.darlinghursttheatre.com