Garsington Opera in Stokenchurch has staged a new production of Gerald Barry's operatic adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Jack Furness. Barry's version already reworks Wilde's "trivial comedy for serious people" into what he calls "an opera of delirium", setting the play's famous punchlines to a staccato hybrid of speech and singing, and Furness's hyperactive staging pushes the zaniness still further.

The production piles on surreal stage business, including a grand piano on stilts, a herd of miniature cows, a kangaroo that meets a grisly end, a chaise longue-cum-slide, and a muddy dirt floor with a working hose, though the reviewer felt these efforts to shock slowed the pace and soured the comedy. Bass-baritone Henry Waddington drew the loudest laughs as a bearded, gun-toting Lady Bracknell, while the ensemble cast — including Jennifer France as Cecily, Zahid Siddiqui as Jack and Seán Boylan as Algernon — was praised for its diction and comic timing, with Kevin Whately in the speaking role of Dr Chasuble. Douglas Boyd conducted a subset of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the critic concluded that the opera has achieved lasting life beyond its premiere.