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Overview
Synopsis
Oscar Wilde’s brilliantly clever comedic masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, was once called by critic W.H. Auden, “the only pure verbal opera in English.” Earnest tells the story of two young gentlemen in London, who each live a double-life, creating elaborate deceptions to find some balance in their lives. John Worthing escapes the burdens of responsibility to have an exciting life in the city, pretending to be his fictitious younger brother Ernest. Algernon Moncrieff, meanwhile, has invented a convenient invalid, Bunbury, whom he uses as an excuse to gallivant off to the country whenever he pleases. When John falls in love with Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen, he is determined to come clean, but when Gwendolen reveals she can only love a man named Ernest, it somewhat complicates things. When Algernon discovers John’s secret and decides to visit John’s pretty little ward in the country, posing as the debauched “Ernest,” the situation gets entirely more complicated! Hijinks ensue, and the two gentlemen and their ladies are in for more than they ever anticipated when formidable Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen’s mother, begins sleuthing around to uncover the far-fetched truth. Oscar Wilde's brilliant comedy captures with wit and charm the absurdity and delight of the Victorian "age of surfaces" (as Lady Bracknell calls it,) while capturing the struggle of four passionate lovers trying to conform to expectations and, in the most roundabout and delightfully funny way possible, love who they wish and live how they want.
Show Information
- Book
- Oscar Wilde
- Category
- Play
- Age Guidance
- Youth (Y)/General Audiences (G)
- Number of Acts
- 3
- First Produced
- 1895
- Genres
- Comedy, Farce, Romance
- Settings
- Period, Multiple Settings
- Time & Place
- “the present” (1895), an apartment in london, an english countryside estate
- Cast Size
- medium
- Licensor
- None/royalty-free
- Ideal For
- College/University, Community Theatre, Professional Theatre, Regional Theatre, Mostly Male Cast, Includes Adult, Young Adult, Late Teen, Mature Adult Characters, Medium Cast
Context
The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People was originally written as a play in four acts, and was shortened to a three-act piece to accommodate the demands of the theatre in which it was originally performed. The original production premiered on Valentine’s Day, 1895 at the St. James Theatre theatre in London. Some subsequent productions have chosen to use part or all of Wilde’s earlier four-act manuscript, rather than the condensed three-act play that was performed
to read the context for The Importance of Being Earnest and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Plot
Act One
The Importance of Being Earnest opens in dashing young Algernon Moncrieff’s flat on Half-Moon street in London, where he is playing piano with “wonderful expression” but not very well. He talks to his manservant Lane about the happenings of the previous few evenings and plans for Algernon’s aunt, Lady Bracknell’s, arrival later in the afternoon. She has expressly asked for cucumber sandwiches, and Algernon inspects them with much pomp, before stuffing his face with them. A
to read the plot for The Importance of Being Earnest and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Characters
| Name | Part Size | Gender | Vocal Part |
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Lead |
Male |
Spoken |
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Lead |
Male |
Spoken |
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Supporting |
Female |
Spoken |
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Supporting |
Female |
Spoken |
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Supporting |
Female |
Non-singer |
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Supporting |
Female |
Spoken |
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Supporting |
Male |
Spoken |
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Featured |
Male |
Spoken |
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Featured |
Male |
Spoken |
Songs
A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.
Monologues
Scenes
Key Terms
A set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty.
A second self or different version of oneself.
A Wildean word for a person who leads a double-life for the sake of fulfilling duties but also seeking pleasures.
A type of comedy, popular in the English Restoration, that made fun of social norms and mores.
A man overwhelmingly concerned with looking stylish and fashionable.
A type of comedy that uses exaggeration, often with clowning and ridiculous behaviors, in order to entertain.
Description of material not protected by copyright law.
A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.
A form of comedy that presents ridiculous extremes in order to make a point about society or human nature.
A man who pursues a relationship with a particular woman, with a view to marriage.
The social group that has the highest status in society, especially the aristocracy.
Relating to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) or a person who lived in the Victorian era.
A protected individual, considered legally incapable of acting for himself or herself (e.g. a child).
Relating to or characteristic of Oscar Wilde or his works, especially in being witty and epigrammatic.
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