AT THE WILBUR

"The Importance of Being Earnest" is pleasantly reminiscent of England's upper crust before the age of umbrella politics and Lady Astor. Fragrant, trivial, witty, and as unreal as Dresden China, this horsehair classic of Oscar Wilde's is a harmless sedative for 1939 hangovers.

Clifton Webb, Estelle Winwood, and Hope Williams have teamed up to instill life and pace into the vast windy spaces of Wilde's epigrammatic concoction. Wilde was a clever dramatist, but drunk with his own scintillating wit; as a result the first act is long-winded and talky. After that an excellent cast makes the most of the play's indisputable Victorian charm.

Suffice it to say of the story that it is an intricate tale of mistaken identity and of the romantic passion of two naive young buds for the name Earnest. It ends happily in a triple clinch, which is no great surprise for anybody.

Clifton Webb carries off the acting honors in his portrayal of John Worthing, who leads a double life as a city rake and grave country gentleman. As the sarcastic and mercenary old snob, Lady Bracknell, Estelle Winwood gives her usual competent performance. Hope Williams is excellent in a rather slim and thankless part.

William Roerick, in the part of Algernon Moncrieff, a sort of prototype of Bertie Wooster, is a little too much the romantic lover and not enough of the playboy. Ainsworth Arnold supplies a refreshing blast of unctuous lechery as the Rev. Canon Chasuble.

This production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" is first-class. Miss Winwood's directing is smooth, although the first act could be improved by cutting long speeches that leave the actors breathless and the audience a little bewildered. In these days of powerhouse realism and bitter satire, Oscar Wilde has the faintly cloying fragrance of too much old lavender; but he is still amusing.