Cultural Dessert

Last Friday we were at the Royal Theatre in Northampton to see ‘Spyski or The Importance of Being Honest’ by the Peepolykus theatre company. Starting, apparently, as a production of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, after a few minutes the actors came out of character to tell us they had stumbled upon the murder of a Russian secret agent in London. They wanted to tell us the details but were being watched by the British security services and would have to switch back to ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ if they spotted a British agent in the theatre. This premise framed a complex, incredibly silly but completely logical tale of murder, intrigue and mistaken identity – which kept occasionally lapsing back into Oscar Wilde. Coincidentally, the spy story ended up with a baby being left in a handbag at Victoria station – you get the idea! At times the actors were playing themselves on an earlier occasion playing the Wilde characters – but it all seemed to make some sort of sense. Great fun, very silly and remarkably clever.