american earnest

never attended a DramaTech event while I was at Georgia Tech. Perhaps this was my way of making amends: accompanying a friend for a performance of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. My reservations against hearing plays written with a British English flavour being performed with an American sensibility reared its ugly head, because although everyone was earnest (no pun intended) in their performances, a lot of the humour was just lost in some hasty dialogue delivery, and a generally different aural experience given the different accent. Call me territorially snobbish, but methinks when Wilde wrote this, he had a certain rhythm of pronunciation to draw from and write for. And somehow a lot of what was said would have benefitted if it were said differently. Similar reasons explain why I have never returned to the Shakespeare Tavern. But, the coolest part of the evening was the place itself. A central rectangular area with overhead lighting and rows of seats rising upwards from each of its edges. Made me wish I was back in the Bharat Natya Mandir again.

This was followed by some improv comedy. Some of the stuff was not unfamiliar thanks to viewings of Whose Line is It Anyway?. Everyone did their best, but it just goes to show how difficult improv comedy really is. And kudos for a rollicking use of if you build it, they will come.