Ncuti Gatwa's Performance is Pure Joy in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'

If you need a dose of joy in your life, there is no better remedy than the National Theatre Live’s The Importance of Being Earnest. This production of Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy originally ran at London’s Lyttleton Theatre from November 2024 to January 2025. Now, thanks to the National Theatre’s cinema screenings, audiences across the globe can have a front-row seat to what already feels like a historic and definitive adaptation of Earnest.

Earnest is a farcical romp about mistaken identity and the queerest tale of heterosexual courtship ever told. Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who) stars as Algernon, a socialite dandy with a taste for gossip and mischief. His friend Jack, played by Hugh Skinner (Fleabag), wants to keep up with Algernon’s raucous lifestyle but is limited by responsibilities at home. To balance his double life, Jack goes by “Jack” at home and “Earnest” when he’s living it up in town with Algy. Enter Gwendolyn (Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́) and Cecily (Eliza Scanlen), two young women who share the “girlish dream” of loving a man named Earnest. Layers of mix-ups and secrets unfold as Algernon, Jack, Gwendolyn, and Cecily pair off under the watchful eye of Algernon’s aunt, Lady Augusta Bracknell, deliciously portrayed by Sharon D. Clarke (Inspector Ellis).

Earnest is pure theater magic, not an ounce of which is lost by its transition to the silver screen. If anything, the screening enriches the play, allowing viewers to take in every stitch in the sumptuous costumes and every quirk of Gatwa’s eyebrows. It is truly, as the National Theatre advertises its live recordings, the best seat in the house.

Every actor delivers what would be a scene-stealing performance in any other production, but the show shines as an ensemble piece. However, the only performer who matches Gatwa’s energy and charismatic command of the stage is Sharon D Clarke. Clarke strides into her first scene with the gravitas and flair of a RuPaul’s Drag Race Werk Room entrance. She plays the stoic foil to the rest of the cast’s hyperactive antics, and the entire stage seems to balance on the tip of her majestically wielded cane. 

Each cast member deserves their own personal paragraph of praise, but Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́’s growling Gwendolyn and Amanda Lawrence’s tottering tutor Miss Prism take the cake (literally, in Gwendolyn’s case).

The genius of this rendition of the theater classic is its seamless blend of Victorian aesthetics and modern delights, making it feel timeless and timely. Algernon and Jack hum pop hits, Gwendolyn wears her hair in a bubble braid and sports a gold G on a chain, and the bright costumes and sets nod to Victorian gaudiness while still looking 21st-century chic. The script is a nonstop parade of quotable truisms and side-splitting one-liners that ring as true in 2025 as they did when the ink was still wet on the page in 1894. Their line delivery would be laugh-out-loud funny in a void, but the physical and visual gags take the hilarity to new heights. The characters’ conspiratorial, fourth-wall-breaking eye contact with the audience makes the play feel like one long gossip sesh with friends.

At a time when queer joy feels in short supply, in the U.S. especially, Earnest has arrived to replenish our stores. The triumph of this production is how well its unabashed queerness meshes with Wilde’s original script. Wilde’s subtext becomes text from the moment the stage lights go up on Gatwa in a revealing pink gown playing piano and caressing suited suitors. Clarke put it best in an interview for the National Theatre, when she said, “I think Oscar [Wilde] would look at this and go, ‘That’s what I wanted to be able to do, but I wasn’t able to do it at that time because of where we were.’ Where we are now we can celebrate it in the way Oscar would have wanted it to be celebrated.”

In every way, this production lives up to the play’s subtitle, “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” The entire play is absurdity choreographed like ballet. Silliness has never been taken so seriously.

The Importance of Being Earnest is playing in cinemas globally via National Theatre Live. Find your nearest screening on the NT Live website.