LIAM Tims and Adam Elms first clicked as a partnership when playing Holmes and Watson in Theatre Mill’s Sherlock Holmes And The Speckled Band last November at the Treasurer’s House in York.

Artistic director Samuel Wood now pairs them together once more in the York company ‘s latest site-specific production: a 1920s’ Jazz Age setting of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest in the State Room at York Mansion House.

On last year’s evidence, you might have expected Tims to be playing the dandy London socialite Algernon Moncrieff and Theatre Mill associate artist Elms to be the outwardly more serious John Worthing JP, who has a young ward in his charge at his country mansion. Instead, Wood saw more potential in casting them the opposite way round, stretching their natural compatibility in a different way, much to Adam’s delight.

“I knew Liam would be able to do something very interesting with John Worthing, who Algy likes to take out in London and get merry,” says Adam. “I wanted to see that side of Liam; that mischief, because John Worthing has all that responsibility as a JP, and that’s why his alternative life comes to the fore in town; it’s his chance to get away from his country duties.”

When Liam read the play, he thought Algernon was the “cool part”. “He’s the talent . John Worthing is the guy who wishes he had the talent,” he says. Nevertheless, he was happy to take up the challenge of the worthier Worthing. “The thing with John Worthing – or Jack as he’s known – is who the hell is he? He’s a different person, depending on where he is. He has to be respectable in the country but he doesn’t really like that life, so my task has been to find out who he is once you take that mask off .”

Liam’s voice for Jack changes, depending on whose company he is in. “When he’s with Algy, my voice goes up a lot and becomes posher; when Jack is with Cecily, his ward, or Gwendolen, his fiancee, my voice becomes deeper and more sincere,” he says.

Adam notes the changes in Algy too when love strikes. “He’s the party boy in town but when he goes to the country, he’s floored by this girl [Cecily], and the only time he’s genuine is when he’s with her – and the reason he’s different with her is because he’s in love,” he says.

Director Samuel Wood has enjoyed watching the two actors do battle with each other. “There’s an element of artifice between Algy and Jack, as they’re both trying to outdo each other, and Adam and Liam really play up to that,” he says.

The result is a Wildely entertaining double act, witty, well dressed and yet sometimes wild too.

Theatre Mill’s The Importance Of Being Earnest runs at York Mansion House, St Helen’s Square, York, until August 17. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk