Wilde as naturally ‘Earnest’

The durable charm of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” is on display at South Coast Repertory. The author, renowned for his paradoxes, might agree that there’s nothing like an antique comedy to make us all feel giddily modern again.

The production, which opened Friday under the direction of Warner Shook, encourages its cast to sound conversationally normal while tinkling Wilde’s sterling silver wit. Or to put it another way, the actors aren’t allowed to play badminton with the priceless quips. Instead, they’re grounding them in the fictional situations they’ve accepted as wholly real.

That’s quite a feat. Wilde, who’s perhaps the greatest geyser of one-liners in the history of show business, couldn’t resist feeding his humorous epigrams to his creations whether the moment called for them or not. And there are times when, in the ensemble’s struggle to be more human than is customary for this type of material, the incessant jokiness falls flat. But then it’s not easy trying to keep pace when you’re committed to making artificiality seem vaguely sincere.

This verbally dexterous farce, involving false identities, romantic miscues and one fellow’s mysterious parentage, proceeds with a Champagne-infused alacrity.

To refresh: Algernon (Michael Gotch), a bachelor devoted to his insatiable pleasures, comes to discover that his wealthy buddy Jack (Tommy Schrider) is a “Bunburyist” like himself. The term merely refers to the practice of inventing a poor friend or relation of fragile physical or moral health to serve as a ready excuse for escaping the tedium of family obligation.

Jack, who lives in the country with his young ward, Cecily (Elise Hunt), calls himself Earnest in London, the same name he’s given to the dissolute brother he’s supposedly always having to rescue. And it is during one of his “emergency” visits to town that he falls in love with Algernon’s cousin Gwendolen (Christine Marie Brown), an amorous deb with an independent streak.

If anything is to come of this union, Jack -- I mean Earnest -- will have to satisfy Gwendolen’s fire-breathing mother, Lady Bracknell (Kandis Chappell), who cannot accept having her daughter marry a foundling whose pedigree harks back to a handbag left behind at Victoria Station. More frighteningly still, he will have to get himself re-christened, as Gwendolen adores him above all for his perfect name.

Meanwhile, Algernon has decided to pay a visit to Cecily, assuming the identity of Jack’s invented city-dwelling brother, a man in dire need of rehabilitation. For a provincial girl, bored by her German grammar and geography and perpetually on the lookout for sensational items for her diary, the prospect seems heaven-sent.

The freshness of Shook’s approach lies in the unexpected characterizations. Gotch and Schrider lend Algernon and Jack the foppish air we naturally associate with Wilde. But there’s also a friendly familiarity between the two that suggests a history of endless club room powwowing, parties till dawn and the joint nursing of hangovers.

Gotch, his pre-Raphaelite hair practically pleading for admiration, flits about the stage as though currents of electricity were coursing through his expensive shoes. Schrider, mustachioed and languorous, prefers daydreaming while sprawled out on Algernon’s animal-skin rug.

The objects of the men’s desire aren’t the usual porcelain dolls. Brown and Hunt are redheads with full figures and round faces, who transform Gwendolen and Cecily into imposing architects of their own futures. No one’s going to treat these two moody, marriage-bound gals as male playthings.

Chappell’s Bracknell is rooted in the character’s titanic need to stage-manage appearances. Her witticisms never emerge as though they were being read from a precious scroll. They’re the expression of a middle-aged woman who’s not about to concede an inch of ground in the ongoing turf war over respectability and prestige.

Also notable are Amelia White, who plays Cecily’s tutor, Miss Prism, with a delightful post-menopausal lustiness, and Richard Doyle, who turns the Rev. Chasuble into an adorable turtle completely deserving of Prism’s animal worship.

The one big disappointment with the production is Michael Olich’s uninspired set design. Wilde, who was reputed to have said on his deathbed, “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do,” would have the proper put-down for such drab decor.

For a play running riot with aesthetes, the visual element shouldn’t have to be overlooked. But to its credit, this revival furnishes the interior life more comfortably than usual. The result, while slightly lacking in comic ping, is nonetheless one of the more credible outings “Earnest” has had of late.

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charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

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‘The Importance of Being Earnest’

Where: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays

Ends: March 9

Price: $28 to $62

Info: (714) 708-5555; www.scr.org

Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes