Notes about The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde.

First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St. James Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious alter egos to escape boring 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, class, and polite society in general, and the resulting satire of the morals of Victorian London.
 Some contemporary reviews praised the play's humor as the peak of Wilde's artistic career, while others were cautious about, what they considered as its lack of social messages. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most popular of all his works for the theater.

The successful opening night marked the peak of Wilde's career but also heralded his downfall. John Douglas, the Marquess of Queensberry, whose son Alfred was Wilde's lover, planned to present the writer with a bouquet of rotten vegetables and disrupt the show. Wilde was tipped off and Queensberry was denied entrance to the performance. Their feud came to a climax in court, where Wilde's homosexuality was revealed to the Victorian public and he was tried for "gross indecency, found guilty and was sentenced to imprisonment and hard labor.

Despite the play's early success, Wilde's notoriety caused the play to be closed after 86 performances. After his release from prison, he published the play from exile in Paris, but he wrote no further comic or dramatic work.

Our production celebrates the 125th anniversary of the work's premiere.