The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on February 14, 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London. It is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways.