DESPITE viewing conditions more akin to In The Heat Of The Night, a large perspiring opening night audience enjoyed this gentle comedy dig in the ribs from the pen of Oscar Wilde.

It is, of course, Wilde's women we admire most. Over-bearing, adorable and irritating by turns, the top drawer example is Darlington's own Wendy Craig, who delivers the bunkum-burdened Lady Bracknell with serene authority.

Hattie Ladbury as the Hon Gwendolen Fairfax and Olivia Darnley as Cecily Cardew enjoy the apparel of apparently worldly-wise women who will only marry a man called Earnest. Experienced Josephine Tewson adds her trademark jittery underling as the unfortunate Miss Prism, haunted by the knowledge she deposited a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station instead of a three-volume manuscript. Fate is against that child, who becomes John Worthing (Andrew Havill), marrying Gwendolen, Lady Bracknell's daughter, until he provides a parent not linked to a larger London railway station. Friend Algernon (Adam James) has the far easier task of falling in love with Worthing's ward Cecily.

It seems a little unfair that today's female onlookers should hiss so audibly through their teeth over the slightest comedy compliment paid to these two hapless heroes, but such is the low esteem placed on male constancy these days. Wilde's overall language may be miles wide of the mark after over 100 years but the appeal of his witty absurdities lingers on.

* The Importance Of Being Earnest runs until Saturday. Box Office: (01325) 486555

Published: 05/02/2004