Harris Manchester student Ben Phillips (right) in the role of Algernon. Image: Edmund Blok.
A four-night run of Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy The Importance of Being Earnest staged by a student-run theatre group, The Harris Manchester Players, has ended to great acclaim.
Directed by Harris Manchester student Sara Rourke, the play featured another College student, Ben Phillips, in the role of Algernon, and it was produced by a third student, Alice O’Halloran. Nadia Sokolovaa created the distinctive artwork that was used to promote the play.
Each of the four evenings, which ran from 13 to 16 May, was a sell-out, with extra seats added due to the high demand. The production was staged in the College’s Tate Quad, which proved to be the perfect setting, with the wisteria in full bloom and providing a beautiful natural backdrop. Cleverly, the staging also made full use of the buildings and paths around the Quad as the characters made dramatic entrances into scenes.
The play also received a glowing review in Cherwell newspaper, which commented: “There is a tender joyfulness achieved in Rourke’s production that is much needed in the middle of Trinity term, in Gwendolen and Cecily’s found friendship, and Jack and Algernon’s delicious banter”.
Director Sarah Rourke herself echoed this when she talked to Cherwell, commenting that: “Wilde’s wit feels like the perfect antidote” to “the stress of the term”.
