O.C. Is No England

Some plays doggedly resist updating and a change of locale. Oscar Wilde’s brittle, shimmering comedy of manners, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” is certainly one of those.

A satire on British society mores at the end of the 19th century, most of its barbs are pointedly of its period.

In his revival of the play at Stages in Anaheim, however, director Kirk Huff tries the improbable--placing the action 100 years later and relocating it to Southern California. Wilde’s London of Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff becomes Beverly Hills, and the rural scene of their shenanigans mutates into Newport Beach and environs. Does it work? Partially.

Huff directs it in fine style, with bright tempos and, in a press release quote, “minor adjustments” to the dialogue to establish the play’s new parameters. His attention to vocal rhythms and the comic flow of the scenes works very well.

Huff should have gone further with his minor adjustments. Miss Prism’s three-volume novel, a phenomenon that existed only in late Victorian England, could have been changed to a Gothic romance novel. The subservience of the butlers, town and country, should have been altered for more modern household help.

The examples are many, and the lack of these changes, along with the retention of idiosyncratic British vocal rhythms in the dialogue, still keeps it far away from today’s Southland.

One problem with the stylized dialogue is that it sometimes unavoidably draws the players into a sort of ersatz mid-Atlantic speech, which fits neither Beverly Hills nor Orange County. They all sound very un-American at times.

Adam Clark, as the Wildean bachelor Algernon, who assumes the role of Jack’s imaginary brother Earnest and falls head over epigram for Jack’s ward Cecily, is a delight and doesn’t fall too much into the dialogue’s telltale rhythms. Matt Tully is also very good as Jack Worthing but is more victim to the dialogue’s original sound.

Joy McCoubrey and Mo Arii are outstanding as Algy’s pretentious cousin Gwendolyn and Jack’s ward Cecily, and they usually avoid the trap of English inflection, particularly Arii. As Algy’s socially pretentious aunt--usually Lady Bracknell, but here Mrs. Bracknell--Pamela Pedder almost pulls off a typical Rodeo Drive matron, but she hasn’t evolved much of a character behind her crisp performance and sometimes looks more like an actress watching other actors act than an actress becoming someone else.

Kara Knappe is a solidly spinsterish Miss Prism as Cecily’s tutor, and neatly hints very broadly at her character’s randy attraction to the meek Rev. Chasuble. As Chasuble, Frank Tryon successfully creates a Southern California minister, devoted but just as randy as his adored Miss Prism. As for the two butlers, Roger Freeman as Lane in Beverly Hills is a good bit too British for the transition, and Ken Jaedicke’s use of an exaggerated speech impediment as the Newport Beach Merriman is not only out of character for Wilde, but also hinders the relaxed houseboy correctness of his reading.

BE THERE

“The Importance of Being Earnest,” Stages, 1188 N. Fountain Way, Anaheim. 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday. $10. Ends Dec. 20. (714) 630-3059. Running time: 2 hours.