The New Rep Theatre Company are a collective of 19 Italia Conti graduates dedicated to making classical theatre accessible, affordable, and engaging for a wide-ranging audience. Inspired by the repertory theatre model, they stage monthly productions, bringing both famous and forgotten classical texts to life in fresh, relevant ways.
We caught up with artistic director David Knight to learn more about the piece.
What can you tell me about this production of The Importance of Being Earnest?
I’m incredibly excited by this production, it has allowed us to flex many muscles as an ensemble. Both as individuals and as a collective trying to make sense of this wild story. My instinct was always to make it a modern retelling. As I read it, and lines made me laugh, I was laughing because the jokes had a relevance to me today. I could see clear characters, these London socialites who I had met many times. That gave us an objective to explore these people and how they navigate their world from a place of privilege and power. From there we could get to work pulling that world apart and adding our own flair to it. It is exciting, unpredictable and is filled with beautifully vibrant characters.
How do you approach bringing your own vision to the piece?
It is all in that first read. When I’m picking texts, you get a sense, I think there will be something in this. Then I read it and hope I’m right. Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not. But if something does jump out, I like to take that instinct and run with it. When I read A Dolls House for example, I had no desire to place the characters in any world. They didn’t need it. The story and the relationships were so beautiful, I wanted those to be at the forefront. With Earnest, those characters need a society because it is what governs their actions, it made sense to me that ours, rather sadly I think, still suits them. Whatever vision I have for a piece it is about making the story sing, and giving it a device or a world to do that in.
What is your research and development like when you’re staging a classic piece?
With Repertory style theatre there is little time for sitting and discussing, and regardless of time I often think this is unhelpful to all involved. We develop and find the play as it happens, we watch it grow, many times outside of us. It is incredible how classic texts when spoken will in many ways take care of themselves. I am also against a lot of research on a play. Some plays need it, to be told with care. However with some very famous texts it is dangerous to get pulled into the theories and opinions of critics. Perhaps it is the ignorance of a young director to say this, but I care very little for what a play ‘should be’. I’m interested in what we can make of it. If what we do is ‘wrong’ so be it, at least it is ours. The research is in the interrogation of the text and the journey of the characters, that way we tell a story that is alive and being found afresh, not one that was mapped out for us 20 years ago.
How important is it that you continue to make theatre that is accessible, affordable and engaging for audiences?
Theatre, and storytelling is a beautifully human instinct. It is how we learn and pass on lessons, history and feelings. The way we do this has evolved. Our stories now sit in front of us, on a device ready to be consumed in one long sitting. However, I will always believe in the power and importance of live theatre. There is something both humbling and inspiring and I think incredibly emotional in watching humans experience life before our eyes, whether that be farce or melodrama, live theatre can speak to us in a way I think very few other mediums can. The idea that theatre belongs to a certain few, or can only be accessed by a certain few, breaks my heart. Classic plays are considered as such because they are universal and stand the test of time. We all deserve a chance to experience those stories, they teach us about who we are, who we could be, or who we used to be. Classic plays can be warnings from the past or messages of hope and a better future. It is vital that in a time when we seem less and less connected to each other, we find a sanctuary and a church that brings everyone together to listen and to feel. That place I will always believe is the theatre.
Why do you think the piece is relevant to a 2025 audience?
Earnest is a brilliantly complicated high comedy that gives many comments on the society of its time. As I mentioned earlier, when I read the piece for the first time I instantly felt these characters and their attitudes would not be lost on many of us today. Their privilege and laughable attitudes are still held today in certain circles. This piece is an investigation of modern power and wealth. No, we cannot see these characters grow and learn because the story does not allow it. So what we can do is watch and observe, laugh at them or with them. I believe it poses many questions about relationships both romantic and platonic, and investigates the masculine and feminine roles within both. Our play holds up a mirror up to modern privilege, and I hope reflects something rather ugly back.
What was the first piece of theatre that had a big impact on you?
A nasty question because there are so many answers. I must mention seeing Mark Rylance live, first in Jerusalem and then in Doctor Semmelweis. He is a British great and I was forever changed by experiencing his work live. However the play I always come back to is Present Laughter which I saw at The Old Vic in 2019. Not only did Andrew Scott give a performance which inspired and propelled me through drama school. But the way Matthew Warchus made that story so wonderfully alive by simply making Joanna into Joe, thereby making most characters in the play queer, was genius. As a young queer actor watching all these characters love whoever they loved without the need for ‘comment’ or ‘message’ was greatly impactful to me, not only as an actor but as a human. It in many ways is a great blueprint for what we do at the Rep. We take something great, we dig around and find what will sing to a modern audience. There is something for everyone in every great play, you just have to look for it.
What keeps you inspired?
I am lucky to have inspiration in many places. Chiefly in my friends, family and my team. We all started this journey with a belief that we could give people something they needed, for actors a space to work and learn and for audiences, theatre whenever they wanted it. We are 7 months into that journey with one play behind us and one fast approaching. It has been incredibly challenging and I would be lying if I said that I hadn’t many times felt like giving up. It is the resiliency and passion of my team to put on each new play that inspires me. It is the love I receive from my friends and parents, who remind me why we started this journey and what we can achieve.
What would you hope an audience takes away from seeing the production?
I would chiefly like people to leave, having had a good laugh and with sore faces from smiling. But after that, I would like someone to maybe question why a joke made them laugh and what they were laughing at. Or perhaps if rather scarily, there were parts of our characters they recognised in themselves? Maybe, they hated each character on stage and if so I’d like them to ask why they did? Truthfully, as much as directors and actors would love to give out thought provoking questions written on cue cards to our audiences as they leave to ensure they ask themselves all the right questions, we cannot. I hope someone will leave, feeling in some way changed or affected by what they have watched. That is all I can hope for.
The Importance of Being Earnest runs at The Golden Goose Theatre from 25th - 29th March 2025. Tickets are available from https://www.goldengoosetheatre.co.uk/whatson/the-importance-of-being-earnest
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