believableness

Not all the cast could keep up with him, but Estelle Winwood got robust comedy out of the gossipy Duchess of Berwick, and England's lovely Penelope Ward got style, presence, even a sort of believableness into the proud, priggish young Lady Windermere.

The characters talk too much and their dialogue, pseudo-biblical in style, constantly undermines their believableness as people.

It is the believableness of Stevenson's atmospheres that prepare the reader for any marvels enacted in them.