Engaged, written by William S. Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan, is the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s deliriously entertaining summer production.
The farcical comedy follows the amusing adventures of Cheviot Hill, a wealthy young man who falls in love with every woman he meets and proposes marriage to many of them. He has a fair-weather friend trying to keep him single so as to inherit Hill’s chum’s estate. It gets more complicated and amusing — not unlike the hilarity in Oscar Wilde’s delightful 1895 comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, similarly full of eccentric characters and unlikely plot twists.
In fact, it’s commonly believed that Wilde’s comic masterpiece was inspired by Gilbert’s play. It has a similar humorous style and borrows several of the “topsy-turvy” plot twists that Gilbert originated. The production is directed by Jeremy Dubin directs the production, which features CEA nominee Rob Jansen as Cheviot Hill, the chronically romantic young man.
Engaged continues Thursday-Sunday through Aug. 9. Read Rick Pender's full review here.
