The Importance of Being Earnest: Ncuti Gatwa is fabulous fun in an Oscar Wilde retelling that wears history oh-so-lightly

Oscar Wilde hardly hid the queer subtext in his frivolous drawing room comedy – designed to enjoyably scandalise Victorian audiences without quite saying the word “gay” – but director Max Webster’s bold, brash and beautifully-cast production blows away every trace of wink-wink nudge-nudge subtlety from this classic. When muffins are eaten at tea, Cecily and Gwendolen’s faces descend sapphically towards one another’s laps – and when Algernon and Jack speak of “Bunburying”, it has never sounded quite so much like “buggery”. Designer Rae Smith works wonders, creating lavish panelled interiors that act as a staidly traditional backdrop for fantastic costumes: Gatwa wears a gloriously saucy ruffled transparent white blouse under his more classic lounge suit, and Clarke’s resolve is stiffened with boldly patterned neon brocades. An ornate proscenium arch frames the stage, with a bouquet of limp, phallic carrots at its centre – possibly a winking reference to the rotten vegetables that the homophobic father of Wilde’s lover Lord Alfred Douglas threatened to throw at Earnest’s opening night.