Coming directly from real London theater-going to go to this play set in London but performed in Sarasota seems a trip from the sublime to the ridiculous. Director Eberle Thomas claims to have approached Wilde's comedy of manners straightforwardly, "not overly concerned about what the style of the play should be." As a result, all that seems highlighted is what's melodramatic about the plot. Exaggeration, especially in manners and vocalization, substitutes for stylization. As the worst example, Deanna Gibson as Lady Windermere rolls her eyes, purses her lips, and loudly chirps like Betty Boop. Not a natural move until the very end, as if becoming unstilted signified being more humane. But it's downright inhuman to direct such a lovely, talented actress so falsely.
Lady Windermere seems here not the perfectionist product of an overly moralistic, prudish upbringing who's shocked at gossip about her husband and an "experienced" older woman. Rather, she's an untrusting instant judge and jury, ready to punish him without pause. And happily take a whack at the scarlet woman too.
Speaking of scarlet women, Ibi Janko as the suspected Mrs. Erlynne flounces into a world of pastel satins and citrus silks with slits showing tiered lace underskirts, but she's in a heavy, scarlet-flecked dress overlaid in black. It's as if she's come straight from a Paris brothel or a Wild-West American saloon, big blonde curls and all. In a production whose main attraction is beautiful costumes, Mrs. Erlynne is as out of place as is Janko's Stella-Dallas type of characterization.
Richard B. Watson's chaplinesque Lord Windermere comes off just as old -- seeming like his Lady's father, not husband. Much the same can be said of her temptor, Lord Darlington, gruffly played by James Clarke, first in the cast to drop the English accent.
Performance styles vary so greatly that Sharon Spelman's wonderfully Victorian gossip and hypocritical Duchess of Berwick, becomes the most likeable of women. Complementing this fine actress in making the most of Wilde's sparkling dialogue is Ross Boehringer as young man about town Cecil, since he also knows his way around epigrams. Whereas Clarke throws away some of the best quips, Boehringer and John Long, as another social gadabout, keep them flowing.
Perhaps the best scene is theirs of bantering in Darlington's apartment where Lady Windermere secretly hides after almost deserting her post and Mrs. Erlynne comes to her rescue by removing Lady Windermere's fan as possible evidence against her.
Most supporting roles are vignettes, well handled by third year FSU/Asolo Conservatory students. Among them, Natasha Staley astonishes as the elderly Lady Jedburg with amazingly "aged" makeup, hair, voice, gestures. Geoffrey Todd with his natural English inflections comes over as an authentic butler. Douglas Jones as Augustus, due to rescue Mrs. Erlynne from her unwed ways, once again portrays an overweight, aging, socially active Brit and pretty much the same way.
There have been some changes to bring in the production as a one-act. Use of the apron for transitional scenes before the curtain is novel at first but becomes a cliche. With all the room on stage and curtain up, it is a mystery why what looks like a ballroom is used as a pass-through while the dancing at Lady Windermere's birthday party takes place on a back terrace.
Early on, Wilde's moral algebra gets erased from the boards. By the end, it seems as if the direction has come down to one big word problem. Wilde? No, wild.
