Jericho Arts Centre to September 27, 2026
Tickets: Adults $40, seniors $35, students with ID $15 at www.unitedplayers.com
Posted September 6, 2026
Bumping into playwright John Lazarus just before the curtain went up on Running Wilde, his new play, I jokingly asked him to give me the “lead” to the review I would write. He barely paused before saying, “The bitch is back.”
This was bewildering until Aunt Augusta (played by Sally Clark) made her entrance on the Jericho Arts Centre stage on opening night of this world premiere. In this, Lazarus’s farcical imagining of Wilde’s May 22,1882 visit to Kingston, Ontario (part of his lecture tour in Canada and the USA), ‘Gussie’ is obviously the forerunner of Lady Bracknell, the haughty, manipulative grand dame in Wilde’s most famous play.
Running Wilde fancifully suggests that The Importance of Being Earnest (1892) – and definitely the characters’ names – arose from Wilde’s Canadian adventure when his one-night lecture turned into a one-night stand with a very upright, suit-and-tie kind of Canadian guy by the name of Ernest (Bob Frazer) – Ernie for short.
The story: Wilde (portrayed by Oscar Wilde lookalike Conor Kavanagh) and his Black valet Davenport (Russell Zishiri) have just arrived in a Kingston hotel. The bellhop – called Al (Patrick Jaworek) – but really named Algernon – is nowhere to be found but when he finally turns up and lets pretty wannabe reporter Gwen into the famous writer’s empty hotel room, we find out that she and Al are in love. Their marriage, however, is forbidden by Gwen’s Aunt Gussie because Al is “a man of little importance.” Auntie is going to do everything she can, including blackmail, to prevent the giddy couple from marrying. Wilde, notoriously a believer in loving whomever you want to love, obviously wants to help the young lovers.
Apart from Wilde, the most interesting character and the one who gives some depth to Running Wilde in Act 2 is Davenport. Playwright Lazarus gets to take jabs at racism and the British class system and there is a moment of real feeling when Wilde starts call his valet “Mr. Davenport” rather than the somewhat condescending “Davenport”.
Scattered throughout are bits and pieces of plays that Wilde would eventually write and Wildean devotees will glory in successfully nailing all the references. There are some pithy one-liners (some of Wilde’s, some of Lazarus’s). My favourite play on words is “cachet” that turns into “cash, eh?”
Running Wilde takes place on Starlynn Chen’s period set lit by Sam Cheng: dining table, settees, writing table, wardrobe – all backdropped by a huge sunflower. Stage left is a dour portrait of Queen Victoria. Significant are the door to the hotel room and, naturally, the bedroom door behind which the shenanigans happen.
There are several pretty hats and absolutely gorgeous gowns (by costumer Naomi Lazarus) but there’s also a terrible, ill-fitting Chinese-style jacket on Kavanagh that Oscar Wilde would not have been caught dead in.
Directed by Roy Surette and presented jointly by United Players and Western Gold Theatre, performances are a bit hit and miss: Kavanagh makes a decent Wilde; Moon is delightful as Gwen. Poor Jaworek had to deal with a couple of brass buttons that popped off his bellhop uniform and his role makes him a goofball. Clark’s enthusiasm will have to be reined in. Bob Frazer, in a kind of strange Canadian farmer kind of role, does what he can – and that’s always good. The role of Davenport is interesting and Zishiri does a good job.
Does all this work? Not really. Apparently, the rehearsal period was plagued by illness and there were no previews so opening night was the first night this cast had an audience. Lines were flubbed and there was one point at which one of the actors completely lost the line: an actor’s nightmare. Apart from the occasional breaking of the fourth wall with direct comments to the audience (“How are you doin’, folks?”), the play feels, well, late-19th century English parlour comedy. And while that’s obviously Lazarus’s intention, the whole thing just doesn’t gel. Or, at least, on opening night it didn’t.
When you run with Wilde, you’ve got to get it right.