It would appear that the current revival of an Oscar Wilde classic at Manchester’s Royal Exchange is delighting the cast just as much as the audience.
“Every single night when we come off, the over riding feeling backstage is absolute elation,” said Rumi Sutton who plays Cecily in this updated version of The Importance of Being Earnest. “We’re having such a fun time. I’m incredibly blessed that the entire company are such good eggs; they are fantastic people and ridiculously talented. It makes the whole thing so much more enjoyable.”
“At drama school I did one of the scenes and I actually played Cecily in that,” she said, “so it was a bit of a full circle moment when I got the job.”
Director Josh Roche has moved the comedy out of the Edwardian drawing room and made it very much a play for today with millennials Algie and Jack looking for love yet afraid of commitment and the ideas of class and status very much to the fore.
“There have been minor adjustments to nudge it towards today’s world,” said Rumi, “but the for majority of the script it is as written and it is so striking how relevant it is.
“All the same issues are there; the jokes are applicable, it is so intelligent.
“The fact we can change the clothes and the scenery shows that it’s not a play about a specific time period,” she said, “it’s about people. Despite how many technological advances we’ve made and however that’s affected us as a society, we still fundamentally experience and feel the same things. We respond and we conflict the same as we always have.”
Rumi’s Cecily is very much of the Love Island generation, sharing every aspect of her life on her phone. So does she share her character’s phone compulsion?
“I waste so much time on this thing, it’s awful,” she said. “I consciously try not to pick it up - oh that sounds so sad. But your life is so much more than this little box.
Read our review: Very much a production for today
“Playing this part has made me so much more aware of how much time I spend on it. But I don’t think I’m as bad as Cecily; I’d say she’s extreme but I know people like that.”
Part of the genius of the play is how it explores the relationship between how people want to be perceived and how they really are.
“Certain characters have a bigger mask than others,” said Rumi. “Cecily will say what she thinks and yet she has the life she projects via her phone which is her mask. It’s so interesting.”
In bringing Oscar Wilde into 2024, the cast have been very conscious not to impinge too much on his original script. So while there may be references to politicians from Eton and a coffee machine is central to a wonderfully slapstick scene, it remains pretty true to the original.
“We wanted to make sure the text wasn’t sacrificed for the laughs,” said Rumi. “Scenes build and grow and it is so perfectly created we didn’t want anything to halt the flow and for the show to lose momentum.”
In rehearsal the cast were given a lot of creative freedom to develop their characters.
“It’s been a dream,” said Rumi. “It’s what most actors always want to do. Josh has allowed us to try things and if he doesn’t think something will work he will tell you.
“The way he cast the show means there is a little bit of our characters in all of us as people.”
In that case, what elements of Cecily are like Rumi?
“I walked into that one didn’t I?” she laughed. “She’s not the most likeable character on stage at times and I think what resonates with me is her tendency to say things in a social situation without thinking, to be slightly unfiltered.
“I might say things but not to the extent that she does and I’d certainly not be as rude or so extreme. But maybe there’s a little of her cheekiness in me; she doesn’t have much fear approaching people.
“Even when I went to audition for the part I had a really clear picture of who she was which, thankfully aligned with how Josh saw her.”
So is Rumi’s Cecily based on anyone in particular?
“She’ll hate me for saying this but my sister,” she said. “I love her to pieces but she’s a livewire. I really don’t want it to come across as my sister is awful, she’s amazing but she is fiery.”
As well as being her first straight acting role, this is the first time Rumi has performed at the Royal Exchange.
“I’d never actually been inside the building until I came to see some friends in Brief Encounter here at Christmas,” she said. “I’d auditioned for Earnest at that point but not heard anything. You should never build your hopes up but I really wanted the role.
“I remember sitting on one of the banquettes next to a lovely lady who is one of the theatre volunteers and she said they would be doing Oscar Wilde this year. I daren’t tell her I’d auditioned for a part because I didn’t want to jinx it.”
Rumi grew up in Colne and set her sights on performing from an early age.
“I went to Laneshawbridge Primary School and I owe that school so much,” she said. “Twice a year they hired Pendle Hippodrome and put on shows - looking back that was a game changer for me.
“The teachers were amazing and encouraged everyone to get involved.”
From there Rumi attended Westholme in Blackburn.
“I was incredibly fortunate to be able to go there,” she said. “They have this amazing theatre and again some amazing teachers who encouraged me to express myself.”
The response to the Importance of Being Earnest has led to the Royal Exchange extending its run until next Saturday.
“That was the best news ever,” said Rumi. “We’re all having such a good time. As soon as we began I started getting sad thinking about the end, now we’ve got an extra week - that’s beautiful.”
The Importance of Being Earnest, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, until Saturday, July 27. Details from www.royalexchange.co.uk
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