It is 1895 and Wilde's masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest is playing in the West End after a triumphant premiere but already the wheels are in motion which will lead to his imprisonment, downfall and vilification.
Forced to make a choice between his perfidious lover, Bosie, and freedom, the more...
ever-romantic Wilde embarks on a course towards self-destruction.
Rupert Everett has championed the work of Oscar Wilde on both stage and screen, and on both sides of the Atlantic. He shot to fame in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film of Another Country. Since then, his leading screen roles have included the multi award-winning My Best Friend's Wedding, film versions of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband, Dance with a Stranger, The Madness of King George, St Trinians and he voiced Prince Charming in Shrek.. He made his Broadway debut in 2009 in Blithe Spirit and recently starred in Pygmalion in the West End. In 2012 he will star in the BBC adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End.
Playing Bosie is Freddie Fox, one of the most exciting young actors in the UK. He starred as Edwin Drood in the BBC's adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, played Marilyn in Worried About the Boy and his West End roles include Noel Coward's Hay Fever and Terence Rattigan's Cause Clbre.
For more than thirty years David Hare has been a major figure on the British and international stage. His award-winning work includes Racing Demon, Plenty, Amy's View, Skylight, The Permanent Way and Stuff Happens and he was Oscar-nominated for The Hours and The Reader. He was the recipient of the 2011 PEN/Pinter Prize, which is awarded to a British writer of outstanding literary merit in memory of Harold Pinter.