Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 3, 1990                   TAG: 9003310568
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ROBERT RIVENBARK SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TRIVIALIT

According to director Tony Distler, the Virginia Tech theater arts department production will emphasize the implicit social criticism in the play, and at the same time try to keep the audience in stitches.

"It's a play that's tremendously fun," Distler said. "I also think it's a play that's appropriate for today, because it's about the trivializing effect of materialism."

The improbable plot involves a romantic intrigue between two pairs of lovers separated by social convention. Jack Worthing, an idle London dandy, is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, daughter of an archetypal dragon of Victorian respectability, Lady Bracknell. Lady Bracknell refuses to countenance a marriage between Gwendolen and Jack because of Jack's background; he was an orphan abandoned in a London railway station in a suitcase.

Algernon Moncrieff, another idle dandy and Lady Bracknell's nephew, falls in love with Cecily Cardew, Jack's 18-year-old ward. As the play unfolds, Jack, a boon companion of Algernon, comes to oppose Algernon's marriage to Cecily because Lady Bracknell won't allow him, Jack, to marry Gwendolen.

Gwendolen has romantic illusions of marrying a man named Earnest. She thinks anyone with that name must have a solid character. She reveals this predilection to Jack, who has told her his name is Earnest Worthing. Jack proposes marriage and Gwendolen breathlessly accepts. But Jack must stick to his phony name or risk losing her.

Complications arise when Algernon visits Jack's country estate and proposes to Cecily, claiming he is Jack's dissolute brother Earnest Worthing. Cecily, who also aspires to marry someone named Earnest, vows to reform Algernon and consents to marry him.

Algernon leaves to arrange with the local vicar to have himself christened Earnest. Gwendolen shows up looking for Jack, and Cecily, meeting her for the first time, gushes that she has just become engaged to Mr. Earnest Worthing. Gwendolen informs her that Earnest Worthing proposed to her the day before.

Sparks fly, but before the two women can tear out one another's eyes, Lady Bracknell arrives, having trailed Gwendolen from London in the hopes of preventing a liaison between Gwendolen and Jack. In the ensuing confrontation, the two young men are revealed as frauds.

The play piles absurdity upon absurdity, giving Wilde the occasion for some of his most deliciously witty repartee. And he further complicates the plot with the antics of two menservants, an obtuse vicar named the Rev. Canon Chasuble and Miss Prism, a governess with a past.

Under all the fun, Distler said, is some serious social criticism he hopes a modern audience can connect with.

"Wilde called this a trivial play for serious people," he said. "What he really meant was just the opposite, because he regarded a great deal of his society as trivial, as opposed to dealing with fundamental issues."

The cast includes Keith Flippen as Algernon, Tim Booth as Jack, Elizabeth Lambert as Lady Bracknell, Sioux Madden as Gwendolen and Vicky Riego de Dios as Cecily. Todd Whitson, Katie Grande, Vince Randall and Howard Simpson are in supporting roles.

Performances will be at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, at 2 p.m. on Sunday and again on April 11-14 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $4 for students and senior citizens, and $6 for general admission at the door. A discount of $1 on each ticket is offered for reservations. Call 231-5615 in Blacksburg, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday, for reservations.