For
immediate publication
The
Importance of Being Earnest
Presented
by
The
Edwin Booth
286
Central Avenue, Dover NH 03820
603-750-3243
The
Edwin Booth presents The Importance of Being Earnest from
May 10-June 2, Oscar Wilde’s legendarily witty satire of supercilious,
upper-crusty London society during the late Victorian era.
A
“comedy of manners,” The Importance of
Being Earnest became an instant sensation when it premiered in London in
1895. Fashionable theatre goers of
the time might have recognized themselves in Wilde’s delightful but unflattering
characterizations of the vainglorious privileged classes, which consider the
serious with the utmost triviality and the trivial with the utmost
seriousness. No doubt this was what
Wilde had in mind. After all, it
was Oscar Wilde who quipped, “if one tells the truth, one is sure sooner or
later to be found out.”
The story of The Importance of
Being Earnest concerns the romantic affections of Jack Worthing for
Gwendolen Fairfax, daughter of the aristocratic and autocratic Lady Bracknell,
whose objection to Jack’s origin as a baby discovered in a handbag, threatens
the couple’s desire to unite. Jack,
however, is cloaked in more mystery than that of his unsuitable beginnings, for
he is actually leading a double life.
During his escapist jaunts into town to revel in London society, he goes
by the name of Earnest. He keeps up
the charade, omitting the fact to Gwendolen and to everyone that in his
responsible life in the country he is the guardian of the young and pretty
Cecily to whom he is “Uncle
Jack.”
One hundred years after its first performance, The Importance of Being Earnest
continues to make a sensation in theatres throughout the world. In The Edwin Booth production, director
Ed Langlois sets the play at the time just before the outbreak of World War I,
when the sanctioned and oblivious realm of the aristocracy was about to be
turned upside down.
When
Wilde arrived in America for a lecture tour in 1882, a customs authority asked
him if he had anything to declare.
“Nothing but my genius,” was his reply. The Importance of Being Earnest is a
declaration of Wilde’s brilliant wit and insight into human nature.
Performances of The Importance of Being Earnest at The Edwin Booth are Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 and 7:30 p.m. For reservations call the theatre at 750-3243.
Cast of Characters
(In Order of
Appearance)
ALGERNON MONCRIEFF played by
Jason D. Roberts
LANE, manservant played by Richard
Harris
JOHN WORTHING, J.P. played
by Chris Curtis
LADY BRACKNELL played by
Kathleen Betsko
HON. GWENDOLEN FAIRFAX
played by Andrea Ardito
MISS PRISM played by Dona
Masi
CECILY CARDEW played by
Paula Place Cordeiro
REV. CANON CHASUBLE, D.D.
played by Ryan O’Hara
MERRIMAN, butler played by Richard
Harris
Director: Edward
Langlois
Assistant Director: Jamie
Harper