The world today consists of many exciting entertainment opportunities. One of them, the play, will be compared and contrasted according to tone in this essay, but in three different forms. These three forms are the stage production of the play, the film of the play, and the script of the play. The play that will be being compared and contrasted is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. This is a very humorous play and all forms of the play are good, but the tone in the script can not be matched by any other method.
First is the play. The importance of a play is the fact that it is a live performance. That being true it is easy for a character to forget their lines and for them to not emphasize the right syllables when they speak. This is very important because in the script “every one of Wilde's characters (with the possible exception of Merriman, the reticent butler) exploits epigrammatic wit and paradox” They all speak as if they are very educated and love to use words, which the actor in the performance might get one day and not the other. Other than that there is also the chance of seeing it twice and getting a different feeling each time based on the seating or just the atmosphere of the room. The choice of the actors and their outward appearance and the lighting of the room is also limited.
This is important because some people might not like the performance just because of a specific actor that they can not connect with, but they would love it if they were seeing it in another place. The performance by Theater of Louisiana College of The Importance of Being Earnest was very humorous. That was the tone of the entire play. The Theater of Louisiana College put in more situations, which are not in script, in which one of the characters would trip or where they would run past each other. There were added lines that were not in the script to make it more humorous and up to date. One example would be there making fun of a something a senator does, which would not have been relevant in England at the time Wilde wrote the play. The actors also paused and slowed down to emphasize the funny lines. Some of these added lines do not live up entirely to the wittiness of the characters in the play. The lines seem to show them as not as intelligent and more primitive. This all came about because of the view in which the director saw the play, because of what the people who financed the play wanted to see, or just because that is want they needed to do to sell the play within their area.
Second is the film of the play. The film can be seen as being very similar to the play, which in some ways it is, but it is also very different. A film will never change once it is finished, and if the director does not like what he sees the film can be shot again. This can not be done in a play. There are usually a larger number of actors to choose from and this causes the actors to be better or look different than those from a play done in a college like the one talked about in the previous paragraph. There are many different views that can be shown and faces can be zoomed in on. There are also many more settings a movie can be filmed in and many more special effects that would allow the tone to be shown better. This makes the ton e stronger because every detail of the face can be seen and it will almost seem to the viewer that they are there looking them in the face or being talked to. The director has the chance to cut scenes or put a older scene in between the current to allow the viewer to remember what happened. This cannot usually be done in a play. The film The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Oliver Parker is humorous, but not anywhere in the range of the humor of the performance. The performance is more about situational humor where as the film is more about voiced humor. There are many more serious scenes. In the script “most of their (Jack and Algernon) dialogue is bickering about property and women; or Bunburying as cruising for rough trade”.
Parker does a good job showing this with out going overboard like the performance does. Instead of adding lines and words he just allows the actors to show, meaning through facial expressions and posies, and the conversation more so than that of the performance. There is also extra information given, but most of this is just background information about characters. The director chooses to show Algernon at the beginning running from his creditors and he chooses to show Cicely day dreams about Ernest. The play almost followed line for line, except it lays out more information to allow the viewer not to be left behind; such as, showing a flash back of Jack's childhood. Then at the end of the play he allows for Lady Bracknell to laugh and for Jack to kiss her as if she has truly accepted him, which is nether in the script or the performance. This seems to support the tone of everything turning out to be alright because of Jack's intentions of being earnest.
