Performers entered a multi-week boot camp on Victorian mores and wardrobes to recreate the era of parasols and teatime in the UH School of Theatre and Dance’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
The 1895 play, written by Oscar Wilde, follows the foibles of a 19th century British gentleman who must own up to leading a double-life as a London socialite.
A scandal emerges as fast-talking Victorians wearing corsets and top hats fight a war for wealth and love over scones and tea.
‘The restraint of Victorian times is really important for the humor of the play to come across,’ director Jonathan Gonzalez said. ‘There’s a scene where two girls are tearing each other apart, and they’re civil the whole time.’
Lynn Voskuil, English professor and author of Acting Naturally: Victorian Theatricality and Authenticity, said that the decorum was key to the era of the play.
‘There were a lot of intricacies of manners and so on that you needed to observe that we simply don’t observe anymore,’ Voskuil said. ‘We don’t even know what some of them are right now. It would be hard to re-immerse yourself in a culture that is so submersed in decorum, propriety and you had to wear the clothes to match.”
To immerse modern American actors in the extreme restraint of the time period, Earnest‘s dramaturges gave each performer a packet with more than 30 pages on Victorian etiquette and diction.
Gonzalez immediately enforced strict formal dress codes for all rehearsals. While performers typically arrive at most shows’ initial rehearsals in comfortable, easy-to-wear clothes such as jeans, sweatpants and t-shirts, Earnest performers embraced a mandatory dress code of corsets, shoes and hats.
‘(Gonzalez) had decided to have us dress formally for each rehearsal, which we all excitedly agreed on,’ first year acting graduate student Melissa Graves, who plays Lady Bracknell, said. ‘He had decided to treat each rehearsal with the respect and dedication that you would give a first date.’
Graves added that simply donning corsets brought from home or borrowed from the costume department made the Victorian restraint and grace come a little more naturally to the company.’
Furthermore, seeing performers in fine apparel made it obvious that certain mundane American gestures looked abrasive when used by a Victorian socialite donning a top hat and suit.
‘Pointing,’ Gonzalez said with a laugh. ‘When a character points in that costume on stage, it just looks very vulgar. We worked on pointing.’
The austere costume requirements also made the actors and stage directors discover first-hand the wide array of wardrobe decisions faced by the Victorians. Actors learned etiquette for removing top hats after entering a room, while actresses debated the propriety of wearing gloves to high tea and the best place to leave their parasols after perching in a Victorian salon.
Drilling the rigid rules of teatime into the performers was another hurdle the company faced.’
Since some of the show’s spoken duels are fought over teatime, performers had to know the ritual. This culminated into a visit to Serenitea Tea Room for a crash course in Victorian teatime from the teahouse’s proprietor, Archana Pyatt, who contributes to Tea in Texas magazine’s Tea Inquiries column.’
Performers left this session with a deeper understanding of the strict rules governing the pouring and drinking of tea, types of tea served, appropriate foods and portion sizes, the order in which sugar and cream could be served and even the difference between high and low tea.
‘No pinkies out-that is not etiquette,’ Graves said with a laugh.
Performers also had to conquer the Victorian wit to successfully convey Wilde’s satire and to pass as 19th century British socialites.
‘The biggest change has been in language, since we are speaking standard British, and I am playing an older woman,’ Graves said.
Keeping up with the extremely quick-witted characters was a struggle, but Graves said that the constant study of British enunciation and wit was worth it.
‘They speak and think much faster than we do now,’ Graves said. ‘But when it’s on, you can feel the melody of the Victorian era.’
The curtain opens for the UH School of Theatre and Dance’s The Importance of Being Earnest 8 p.m. Friday at the Quintero Theatre.’
