The National Theatre’s current production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest takes the play’s queer subtext and runs wild (or, Wilde) with it. The play has always been an intricate knot: its characters and their lies lead to catastrophic circumstances, but it isn’t anything that can’t be sorted out over tea and muffins.

The two pawns of the play, the young women who become entangled in the lies spouted by Algernon and Earnest are Gwendolyn and Cecily, in this production played brilliantly by Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ and Eliza Scanlen. However, neither play Gwendolyn and Cecily as victims, instead they are as equally as fiendish as the boys. 

While still in previews, we caught up with Ronkẹ and Eliza to get all the gossip about Earnest and what it feels like to be in the season’s hottest play.

Barry Pierce: You’re both still in the previews for The Importance of Being Earnest, so the play is still this very malleable thing. You’re working out what works for the audience and what doesn’t, how has the experience been so far?
Eliza Scanlen: They’re going so well. Every day it tightens and every day we’re fine-tuning it. This play is so quick that it takes a lot of focus, but we’re getting there.

Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́: It feels like the audience are our lead characters. Like, they’re the lead characters and we’re here to support them. So I think the previews have really been about finding how to best serve them and play with them so they get to experience the journey and the joy that we are all experiencing on stage.

BP: It must be a lot of fun working on a play like Earnest. I want to say it’s not a serious play but it is a serious play, it’s just very openly funny and quick and witty. Do you feel you’re free to sort of do your own thing within the boundaries of the story?
ES: Yeah, for sure. I think we can do our own thing in the sense that this play doesn’t work if you’re not having fun. But you also have to honour the play in that you can’t stray from the text, once you’re on the train you’re on it until the very end. It’s a play that doesn’t afford you pauses, it feels like one long sprint. I think Wilde once described the play as a pistol shot, as opposed to the critics at the time who saw it like a soufflé or something tinsel-y.

RA: There’s always room for expression, play and discovery, as long as it’s within the boundaries that Wilde has set us. Actually, it’s very technical. You, as the artist, have to shift how you approach and deliver the text because of those boundaries. I really love this adaptation because it feels like a time capsule has exploded in 2024 and the characters have come and met us and given us joy in some real the-world-is-burning times.

“It’s a play that doesn’t afford you pauses, it feels like one long sprint” — Eliza Scanlen

BP: Could you tell me a little bit about the characters you’re playing?
RA: Gwen-Gwen! She is on display. She wants to be seen in every which way. There is so much attention to detail with her, it’s in everything — colour schemes, hair, the way she stands. She is, at every moment, trying to construct how she wants her life to be. I used to think she did this in order to keep herself safe but it’s actually in order for her to be truthful to herself. Unfortunately for her, she has to respect and honour her parent who acts as her direct obstacle. Especially in Black communities, or in my own Nigerian household, respect is a very big thing. If my mum caught me doing the madness that I’m doing in this play, like in real life… You guys might not see me again. [laughs]

ES: I think Cecily has taught me a lot. My usual mode of operating is to be quiet and not draw attention to myself. I often take the back seat and Cecily would never take the back seat. She is the OG manifester. She wills her dreams into existence and, quite literally, forces someone into a marriage. Or, not forces, they want to be married, but she wills her dream of being married to Earnest into existence. What’s been most freeing about playing Cecily is that her reasons for doing things never have to be that deep. She can walk into a scene with the intention of just being fabulous.

“If my mum caught me doing the madness that I’m doing in this play, like in real life… You guys might not see me again” — Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo

BP: Ronkẹ, how many times have you been at the National now? Because I know this isn’t your first rodeo.
RA: This is my third time but it’s the same stage. They won’t let me on any of the other stages. [laughs] I’ve only been on the Lyttelton. And do you know what’s crazy? When I was researching the role I found an article in the Tate magazine titled, Socialite Responsibility. It’s about this woman named Adele Mayer and she was trying to enter high society in the late 1800s but because she was German and Jewish, she had a really hard time getting there. I saw a lot of Gwendolyn in her and her attempt to enter high society. Anyway, I’m reading this article and eventually she became friends with this woman who helped introduce her to high society by paying £70,000 to support a campaign to set up what later became the National Theatre. That woman was Edith Lyttelton. And we’re playing in the Lyttelton.

BP: That’s kind of insane.
RA: Each play I’ve done in that space… People who have performed on that stage before are all souls, and I think they exist in the walls.

BP: Eliza, this is not only your first time playing in the National, but your first play in London. How has that been?
ES: It’s unbelievably overwhelming. And this last week has been one of the most challenging weeks for me as an actor, but it’s been challenging in the best possible way. It’s stretched me in ways I couldn’t have expected. But it’s a real gift when you find something that genuinely challenges you. The last time I was on stage was before Covid, so restoring my relationship with a live audience has been an incredibly fruitful experience. When you’re acting in front of a camera, it’s just a different form of intimacy. When you act with a live audience, it requires more vulnerability. 

BP: The entire run of Earnest has basically completely sold out. How does it feel to take part in something that has been so huge? There’s posters and billboards all over London.
ES: It’s so exciting but I think it’s so telling that now, more than ever, we all need to find a reason to laugh and to find joy. And we have such a conversation with the audience, we interact with them, we don’t ignore them. It’s a very special exchange. 

RA: There’s something about offering joy as catharsis. The volume of people who want to come and experience this journey with us because they want to feel joy. To be a vessel for that joy… It’s a gift. It’s like medicine.

The Importance of Being Earnest runs at the Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre until January 25th. Rush tickets become available every Friday on the NT’s website.

From February 20th, the production will be brought to cinemas around the country courtesy of National Theatre Live. More info here.