The EUTC’s The Importance of Being Earnest loyally follows Wilde’s original script and the social satire of the late Victorian era. El Mair is stepping up to the directing role in bringing Wilde’s play to life, and they joined me earlier in the week to discuss their vision, production and hopes for their show.
It’s Mair’s first time behind the scenes after many shows starring on the stage; they felt “desperate to see what is really going on behind the scenes”, and discover “the limits within creative vision that you can push as a director.” A Bedlam veteran, Mair described the process of running a show so affectionately: “It’s such a family feel and it’s such an intense, exciting experience that people do get invested [in], and I really felt that investment from so many people. It was so exciting to see all of these people understanding the vision so quickly because they felt it was relatable.” They couldn’t state more how they “felt so supported by the entirety of the team, the cast, the crew — everybody involved has just taken on such a wonderful energy with the project.”
Gender and sexuality has played a major role in Mair’s adaptation: “I myself am a non-binary person. I have always loved that within theatre you can play such a huge range of different characters, [and] different people. Apart from anything else, it’s so exciting. You get so bored doing the same thing over and over again. In fact, you get to go onto the stage and play this new character every time. It’s so fun.”
However, Mair pointed out that “so often when we then cross these boundaries, we cross boundaries of sexuality, of age, of religion, all sorts and we don’t question it. If somebody comes onto a stage and they look like a 20-year-old girl and says I’m a 60-year-old plumber. We don’t really question that. But then if we actually ask people to just play regular characters in terms of who they are — but change the gender and play that seriously — we struggle and we don’t see it very often. It’s not just about trans and non-binary people. It is so often actually about the basic rigidity of gender. People do feel as comfortable to do a different job because they assume that somebody with a certain gender is doing it.”
This is why gender is so important in Mair’s adaptation: “I was really excited about the idea of basically taking these pieces that I’d grown up hearing all the time in exam preparation and stuff and getting to see people actually now try and take on this added element of gender switch[ing]. And I think a lot of queer and non-binary people would probably agree that you go through your day a lot of the time acting out gender in so many different ways.” Wilde’s play provides the perfect opportunity to explore this — Mair praises him as “the kind of visionary queer voice of the 1890s.”
Rehearsals are very much under way, and Mair is so quick to praise everyone on the team and the effort consistently being put in: “It’s been quite motivating actually, rehearsal and each meeting. Every time I meet with one of the production team, there’s always a new idea. [The cast are] “so dedicated and blessed.”
The Importance of Being Earnest runs at the Bedlam Theatre from 11-14 March.
Photo by Hikari Sutton-Hibbert, provided as press material.