PTC cast knows importance of being funny

Gwendolen couldn’t possibly love Jack unless his name were Ernest, which she believes it is. And Cecily can bear to be engaged to Algernon only because she believes his name is – Ernest.

It all adds up to “The Importance of Being Earnest,” an Oscar Wilde play eagerly received by Friday’s opening audience as though it were fresh and new, not 106 years old.

In the hands of director Matthew Arbour and the fine cast of the Penobscot Theatre Company, Wilde’s farce of secrets and surprises, indeed, is fresh and new.

A PTC staffer has compared the play to the TV hit “Frasier,” and certainly Wilde’s wit holds up to 21st century sensibilities.

“I am sick to death of cleverness,” Jack frets to Algernon. “Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left.”

Happily, the acting is equal to the writing.

Craig Houk, an Equity actor who will debut his solo show “Desperately Aloof” next month in Boston, is quick out of the starting gate as Algernon.

With facial expressions and body English galore, Houk blooms with Algernon’s pursuit of amusement and determination to take over the Ernest persona in order to woo the fair Cecily.

Compared to the animated Algernon, Jack seems a tad bland in the beginning. That’s only so that Doug Meswarb can bring him to life in the presence of Gwendolen, and in the later tangling and untangling of Jack’s dual lives and his roots in a handbag parked in a railroad station.

How sincere – and yes, earnest – Jack is as he tentatively plies the waters of love toward his engagement with Gwendolen.

Joan Jubett, also an Equity actor, is a strong Gwendolen, informing her Ernest even before the proposal that she intends to accept.

And SerahRose Roth is delightful as Cecily, the young woman who falls in love with the idea of her Ernest months before she even meets him.

Once the truth is out – part of it, anyway – Jubett and Roth flourish as their characters become fast friends uncertain what to do with their now non-Ernests.

There’s more romance afoot, as well, between Canon Chasuble and Cecily’s governess, Miss Prism, who knows something about that mysterious handbag.

Julie Arnold Lisnet is just the actor to guard her secrets, and Shaun Dowd is a convincing cleric, ready to christen the Ernests out of their problems. Sharon Zolper makes a most imperious Lady Bracknell, more than ready to have her puffery punctured when the time comes.

Ginger Phelps deserves special notice for the exquisite Victorian costumes, and Ken Goldstein’s sets are also very good.

Matthew Arbour gets a big hand for his direction, and especially for incorporating the comings and goings of the characters into the set change between the second and third acts. It was an entertaining little vignette.

“The Importance of Being Earnest” will be performed at 8 p.m. March 9 and 10; 2 p.m. March 11; and 7 p.m. March 8. Tickets are $17-24, with discounts available for some shows for students, teachers, seniors and military personnel. Tickets: 942-3333. The Web site is www.PenobscotTheatre.com.