I first saw Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest from the wings:  I played Lane the butler 20 years ago in one of my first polished productions, so of course I had to smile as I watched director Mike Wilkinson's version at Paradise Theatre in Gig Harbor. The Paradise, which looks like a private home from outside and used to be the Gig Harbor Christian School, is an easy 10-minute drive past the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. 

Jeff Richards' set for Act I seemed rudimentary at first - just a few foam flats hanging from black curtains - but his set dressing and furniture were appropriate, his lighting polished.  Classical piano set the scene as Peter Knickerbocker's Lane entered and tidied the room just so, a grace note I wish we'd used in our college production. It's the comedy of manners you're most likely to have read or seen, so surely I don't have to rehash the plot?  Just in case, think three-act domestic sitcom with famously droll dialogue, obvious foreshadowing and comic misunderstandings.  It's Frasier with crumpets.

Read the full review here.

Paradise Theatre

The Importance of Being Earnest

Through May 9, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, $10-$22,

9911 Burnham Dr. NW, Gig Harbor, 253.851.7529