2002 : The Importance Of Being Earnest

The Importance Of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde.

Tuesday 9th - Saturday 13th July 2002. Curtain up 7:30pm.

'The Importance of Being Earnest' is generally recognised as Oscar Wilde's masterpiece and it is probably the greatest play written in the English Language during the last hundred years. It is a play full of linguistic gymnastics. The dialogue is everything and as one of the characters observes 'In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing', it is what you appear to be that matters. Oscar Wilde wrote this play in the summer of 1894 when he was staying in a small house with his wife and children in Worthing. At the same time it was clear to him that his personal life was in free fall. Indeed, the play opened in February 1895 but was taken off the stage when Wilde was arrested after the collapse of his libel against Lord Queensberry, the father of Lord Alfred Douglas.

Jack Worthing is 'Ernest' in town. He wins Gwendolyn's hand, but she declares that she chiefly loves him for his name - Ernest - the name Jack has allotted his non-existent brother whose peccadilloes explain his frequent absences from his country home where lives his pretty ward, Cecily. Meanwhile Cecily has decided to marry rake-hell 'Ernest' and when Algernon presents himself in this guise, she immediately accepts his smitten proposal. However through some highly improbable coincidences, all is happily resolved. Period: 1890's.