Message from the Artistic Director: The Importance of Being Earnest

It's hard to believe that this production will mark Roundabout's first time bringing you the work of the great Oscar Wilde. Wilde is one of the best-known literary figures of the late Victorian period, yet many people don't realize how few theatrical works he left behind. In fact, the very social hypocrisies that he satirizes in Earnest contributed to the shortening of this famous wit's career.

Born in Dublin in 1854, Wilde was extremely successful in his academics, rising to the top of his class at Trinity College and quickly making a name for himself through his writing and lectures. Wilde's main subject in his early career was his support of the aesthetic movement, of which he became a major figure. As an aesthete, Wilde favored pleasure, beauty, and individualism above all else. To a Victorian society that sought moral clarity and pragmatism, Wilde's love of lavish décor and showy dress was both an oddity and an affront, but Wilde argued that beauty in itself has value, regardless of ethics.

Wilde's first major literary success came from his novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray," which is still widely-read today. After that, he decided that the theater was the best place to critique society, so he wrote Lady Windermere's Fan, which was produced in 1892. This production was followed by A Woman of No Importance (1893) and An Ideal Husband (1894), and finally his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, which premiered on Valentine's Day of 1895.

There's a good reason for Wilde's choice to call Earnest "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People." In the play, the usually-serious upper class is revealed in all of its silliness. Identities are created, tossed aside, and repeatedly changed. The most upright are revealed to be the most ridiculous. And even Wilde's most famous character, the formidable Lady Bracknell, has her requirement for proper social etiquette satisfied in the most humorous of ways. The play remains as funny today as ever. Perhaps because social hypocrisy itself never seems to go out of style, the criticism of that hypocrisy through comedy remains as necessary for us as it was for the Victorians.

I find it terribly sad that Earnest was both Wilde's finest and final play. He became embroiled in scandal shortly after the play's premiere and, when his homosexual affairs were made public, would eventually be convicted of gross indecency, leading to two years of imprisonment and hard laboR. Wilde would never again be the same light-hearted writer and seeker of pleasure he had once been. He was shunned by the very society that had once embraced him and would die destitute in 1900.

To me, the best way to move past the harsh reality of Wilde's fate is to celebrate his work, and I believe that this production of Earnest will do exactly that. The dialogue remains as sparkling as when it was first spoken in 1895, but the great Brian Bedford has found ways to make even the play's most familiar moments feel fresh and funny. It's a joy for all of us at Roundabout to welcome back Brian, who has been seen here as such a brilliant performer in The Moliere Comedies, London Assurance and Tartuffe. To have him here now as a director is truly special, and I admit that I am particularly excited for you to see Brian's take on the great Lady Bracknell. While this is not the first time that a man has played the role, I can assure you that you have never seen anything like this performance. And I can't help but think that Wilde himself, a man who urged individualism as an escape from the monotony of routine, would wholly approve of this distinctive production of his dazzling comedy.

I think it's fitting that only a few years ago a rare copy of the play's first edition was discovered in a thrift shop, stashed, of all places, inside a handbag. I hope that this production will be as wonderfully surprising to you as that amazing (and hilariously apropos) discovery must have been. Please continue to share your thoughts with me by emailing artisticoffice@roundabouttheatre.org. I am "earnestly" awaiting your reactions to this play and to everything you have seen this season.

I look forward to seeing you at the theatre!

Todd Haimes

Artistic Director