The Importance of Being Earnest at Theatre Royal Brighton
Serious Trivialities
An all star cast perform Oscar Wilde’s comedy The Importance of Being Earnest at Theatre Royal Brighton
A new production of Oscar Wilde’s brilliant comic masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, visits Theatre Royal Brighton for one week only from Monday 29 September to Saturday 4 October, direct from the West End.
Dubbed by Oscar Wilde ‘a trivial comedy for serious people’, the production delivers an entirely faithful, but nonetheless unique, setting to one of the greatest theatrical comedies ever written.
The Importance of Being Earnest elegantly lampoons the hypocrisies of Victorian society and opens as two bachelors, the dependable John Worthing, J.P, and upper class playboy Algernon Moncrieff, feel compelled to create different identities in order to pursue two eligible ladies, Cecily Cardew and Gwendolyn Fairfax.
The hilarious misadventures which result from their subterfuge, their brushes with the redoubtable Lady Bracknell and the uptight Miss Prism, result in a plot that twists and fizzles with some of the finest dialogue to be found in theatre.
To bring Wilde’s genius afresh to a new audience, this production assembles The Bunbury Company of Players, a star studded and extremely experienced cast of serious comedic actors. To quote Lady Bracknell in the play, “London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.”
Nigel Havers and Martin Jarvis revisit the roles of Algernon Moncrieff and John Worthing, J.P, respectively, having played these parts in Sir Peter Hall’s 1982 production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre. Siân Phillips joins them to play Lady Bracknell, having recently performed the role to excellent reviews in Washington. The notable cast also includes Rosalind Ayres, Niall Buggy, Christine Kavanagh, Cherie Lunghi and Patrick Godfrey, who also played Merriman in the 2002 film adaption of The Importance of Being Earnest.
Don’t miss the chance to see this classic piece of theatre performed by an all star cast – in Brighton for one week only.
Mon 29 September – Sat 4 October
Eves 7.45pm, Thu & Sat mats 2.30pm
www.atgtickets.com/brighton*
0844 871 7650*
(*booking fees apply)
