T HERE will be handbags at dusk when Cornwall’s Miracle Theatre returns to Dorset for its traditional summer of al fresco performances.

This year’s seasonal delight is an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s never-failing comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, which comes to the county in July and August.

Set in 1912, with the Titanic sinking, mass production just beginning on the Morris Oxford and the Turkey Trot causing outrage across the dance floors of polite society, this tale of the strange contents of a handbag found at Victoria station has been subtly adapted to extract every drip of humour and contemporary relevance.

In a departure from ‘normal’ Miracle procedure, this adaptation is being treated in a rather more straightforward manner.

Director Bill Scott explained: “We wanted to choose something that was a ready-made sure-fire comedy that we would not have to tinker with.

“We have just finished a huge project called Tin, which involved English Touring Opera and 150 community choristers and didn’t wind up until the week before we started working on Earnest, so we wanted something simpler.

“We usually spend time devising and improvising and changing productions, but we felt that this year we simply couldn’t do it with the time allowed.”

However, performing a ‘straight’ play is still proving a challenge for the players.

Bill added: “It has been anything but boring, even though in one sense you just have to say the words and stand in the right place to make it work.

“You need the right space to let the characters breathe because there is such a wonderful clarity of language that you have to get the intonation right.”

Miracle’s adaptation of ‘a trivial comedy for serious people’ is set in the Edwardian era where two young men, Earnest and jack, and the objects of their affections, Gwendoline and Cecily, work through various layers of confusion until they reach their romantic conclusions.

The complications are compounded by a selection of characters including the indomitable Lady Bracknell, The Rev Canon Chasuble and a Miss Prism.

Lady Bracknell is played by Ben Dyson – who is enjoying his ‘Dame moment’ – with Algernon and Jack played by Wesley Griffiths and Kieran Clarke, and Cat Lake and Bex Rowe as Gwendoline and Cecily.

The first Dorset performance is in Maumbury Rings, Dorchester on July 14, call 01305 266926 for tickets and full details, followed by three performances for Artsreach in August. For these, visit artsreach.co.uk or call 01305 269512.