The Importance of Being Earnest The Wyvern Theatre Until Saturday, October 31

THE Bunbury Players deserve high praise indeed that after so very many years they are still performing the ageless classic, The Importance of Being Earnest.

Anthony Scottney and Richard Oldfield reprised their roles of John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff so enthusiastically that it was entirely possible to forget they are both too old by several decades to play young gentlemen in their 20s.

And all this in the illustrious surrounds of the Wyvern Theatre.

Of course, this was no ordinary am dram. Anthony Scottney is in fact Martin Jarvis and Richard Oldfield Nigel Havers. The Bunbury Players are a fictional troupe bringing to life Wilde's masterpiece for the umpteenth time in this hugely enjoyable production.

The play opens on the day of the Players' dress rehearsal, beset by mishaps such as a piano that plays itself, splitting costumes and disappearing cucumber sandwiches.

'Break a leg', they cry, as they embark on a full run-through of the play.

Jarvis and Havers are a joy to watch — they're clearly having a good time — while Sian Phillips as am dram stalwart Lavinia turns in a fine performance as the imperious Lady Bracknell. In fact every cast member - among them Rosalind Ayres and Christine Kavanagh - is impeccable.

Directed by Lucy Bailey with additional material written by Simon Brett, this is a witty and fun way of getting round the fact that the two leads are indeed too old to play the two heroes. And although the am dram action bookends the main production, it in no way interferes with Wilde's classic, which is allowed to flow in all its hilarious splendour.

If you haven't already booked tickets, I suggest you do so immediately.

As Mr Wilde himself said: "I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being."

It's also a bloody good giggle. — GILL HARRIS