The first time I saw Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” was on our local public television station in Connecticut in my teens. And I loved it. The witty, rhythmic dialogue, the characters, and the commentary on Victorian society are thoroughly engaging. I watched it a few more times whenever it was produced – including last month, on YouTube.

River Company of Damariscotta has a full-on production, we’re talkin’ sets, costumes, and props ... and, get this: The actors are in Maine, California and New York. And you know what that means .... with the exception of the actors who are couples in real life, the performers were not in the same space together, unless you consider Zoom as that space. Ah, 21st century-pandemic theater ...

This show, in Victorian era terms, would be said to be bang up to an elephant! Translation: Perfect. Complete. As interesting as I find that phrase to be, I prefer to go with “Bravo!” for one heck of a good show! Let’s start with the accomplished cast, and director Nick Azaretti (who plays the role of Lady Bracknell), Newcastle: Soren (Algernon Moncrieff) and Emily Sue (Cecily Cardew) Barker, Boothbay Harbor; Ellie Busby (Miss Prism), Damariscotta; Michael Hovance (Jack Worthing/Earnest) and Jessica Plotin (Gwendolen Fairfax), Redondo Beach, California; Mitchell Wellman (the Dr. Vicar Chasuble), Nobleboro; and Joe McGann (Lane), upstate New York.

Before I get into the production end of the show, let’s dive into this ever-popular piece of theater, quite the commentary on love, marriage, morality and hypocrisy.

The lead characters are Algernon and Earnest. There couldn’t be a more satisfying pair of actors around better suited to play these roles than Soren and Michael, respectively. The first time I watched the play I thought these two guys are pure gold together. You would swear these actors knew each other.

Both have aliases so they can play as they wish despite the fact they live in Victorian England, but it’s tricky: The man we meet as Earnest is only Earnest in London; at his country manor in Hertfordshire with his ward Cecily, he is Jack. Whether Jack or Earnest, he is in love with Gwendolen, the daughter of Lady Bracknell and Algernon’s cousin. Now here’s the sticky part: Gwendolen has told him that she could only marry a man named Earnest because, for her, the name inspires confidence. She is, in fact, quite set on this. No worries in town, but once he proposes, how will they live in Herfordshire when his ward thinks his name is Jack? What to do …

Upon learning Gwendolen has accepted Earnest’s proposal, Lady Bracknell doesn’t see him as suitable material for her niece. Bracknell knows a thing or two about propriety, good manners and good breeding, moral backbone and all.

Algernon’s alter ego is the imaginary Bunbury, a semi-invalid who frequently finds himself knocking on heaven’s door. When Bunbury calls, Algernon must go running to his side, which gets him out of all manner of family gatherings he doesn’t want to gather at. Algernon’s love interest is Cecily, a very young girl who yearns to be wicked. She is in love with Algernon, in fact, in her fully engaged imagination, he has already proposed to her and she accepted. It’s all in her diary she tells him on a visit during which he plans to pop the question. Cecily even reads the entry from the night they became engaged to him. However, don’t go ringing those wedding bells yet because Cecily, too, must marry a man named Earnest. But that’s OK because Algernon calls himself Ernest, Jack’s younger brother, when he visits Cecily.

What could possibly go wrong?

Then there’s Miss Prism, dear slightly daft Miss Prism who in a confused state left her newborn son instead of a manuscript, in a briefcase of sorts at the train station, by mistake. Prism is Cecily’s tutor out at the Hertfordshire manor. And guess who that babe was? Jack! I mean, Ernest, or no, no, yes, it must be Ernest.

What could possibly go right?

As far as this production goes, most everything! Director Nick left no detail unaddressed – this, as Ellie says, “was his baby.”

How’d this Zoom production get to rehearsal? Nick and Michael have been part of the Zoom Shakespeare reading group, All the Bard’s Words, that also read “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Michael did the casting and chose Lady Bracknell for Nick’s role. Nick enjoyed it so much, he had to play her again.

Michael has actually known Nick a very long time: He was one of Nick’s theater students at Lincoln Academy, his alma mater. Michael moved out to California, performing in professional productions there and in London. Now, said Nick, he does it for fun.

Michael’s partner Jessica is the only actor in the show Nick hadn’t worked with.

The sets, or let’s say backdrops, are ingenious: They’re images of the dining room of two dear friends of Nick’s, Della and Ellen, in NYC. Not only is the décor in that room perfect for the time period, another room, wallpapered in a William Morris design, is another backdrop.

“It was technically challenging,” said Nick. “I met with Ellen on Zoom and had her walk around the dining room at different times of the day to find out what time the best light was to be like Maine around 9-10 a.m. Then she put her MacBook down in different places and at different angles throughout the day.”

From those, eventually screen shots that weren’t fuzzy were taken by Delia using the HD setting on her iPhone. Still, there are a few images where Gwendolen’s hat disappears – something to do with a quirky thing with Zoom and the color green … long story, he says.

The background for the garden scenes in Hertfordshire are from photos taken by Ellie, who is an excellent photographer, in the rose gardens at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

So, everyone had a green screen, a rose garden screen, and the wallpaper screen. Nick sent the images to the cast to download from the River Company’s Zoom account where it could be stored.

Next challenge: How to make the props appear to be being passed from one character to another when they were often on opposite sides of the country. Well, Nick had that all figured out: There would be two of everything – two tea sets, two identical cigarette cases, teacakes, port glasses, Pepperidge Farm bread (for the cucumber sandwiches), sugar cubes … the tea party scene is something else!

This cast has the dialogue down, the nuances and inflections; Nick said they spent a good two weeks just working on it. Rehearsals were two to three times a week, usually 8 p.m. when Soren and Emily Sue were getting their baby to bed and the California couple were getting home from work.

No lines had to be memorized, although Soren said after the in-depth rehearsal time they pretty much had them down. Cast members propped up scripts below or off to the side of the camera.

Mike Lee of River Company was the film editor. Nick said they ended up with 10 times more film than they needed, but he still gave Mike a very detailed list of the shots he wanted pieced together. Mike completed the editing in late July and the play was uploaded onto River Company’s YouTube channel in early August.

Soren noted one of the quirks in the show – the brief delays in some of the response times between Maine and California. But having watched this play three times, it’s no big deal. The actors are so fine. The play is a classic … with modern production twists … showing forever on a television, computer, or cell phone screen near you.

Watch it at https://youtu.be/awWWADNKe94