Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of being Earnest"
Last year I had the
opportunity to see the farcical comedy “The
importance of being Earnst” in the so called Literature House of Graz. Although
it has some funny and also interesting scenes, it is not for everyone because
it tends to drag on at length. However, I was very
fascinated by the play. As I was sitting in the first row, directly in front of
the stage, I felt like being a part of the play. The curtain opens without making any noise, as though it is moving on its
own; the actors appear on stage and start to speak in a loud voice.
“The importance of being Earnst” is based on a screenplay by Oscar Wilde who was born in Dublin in 1854 and died in Paris in 1900. This play is about Jack Worthing, who was found as a little baby in a traveller’s handbag on a train station called Victoria Station. He grows up on the countryside and decides to move into the city as Earnest Worthing where he gets to know Algernon Moncrieff. After Jack becomes Algernon’s best friend he falls in love with Algernon’s cousin Gwendolyn Fairfax, and wants to propose to her. A certain time later Algernon finds a cigarette case bearing the inscription, "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack”. Jack is forced to admit that he’s living a double life and proposes to Gwendolyn in the absence of her mother, Lady Bracknell, and her cousin. Then Algernon leaves to visit his sick friend, Bunburry. He meets Cecily who is Jack’s ward and introduces himself as “Earnest”. After a while he falls in love with her, and they get engaged. Meanwhile Gwendolyn and her mother arrive. Gwendolyn meets Cecily realizing they were both lied to. Soon they confront their fiancées and discover that they lied about their names. Lady Bracknell recognizes Miss Prism, the governess, and it turns out that twenty-eight years earlier, as a family nursemaid, she took a baby boy for a walk and never returned. Miss Prism explains that she had absentmindedly put the manuscript of a novel in the buggy and the baby in a handbag, which she had left at Victoria Station. Jack, the elder son of Lady Bracknell's sister (thus indeed Algernon's older brother), shows the very same handbag, clarifying that he is the lost baby. Gwendolyn remains certain that she can only love a man named Earnest. Eventually, Lady Bracknell informs Jack that as the first-born, he would have been named after his father, General Moncrieff. Jack examines army lists and discovers that his father's name was in fact Earnest. In the End, the couples hug each other and the curtain closes.
This play was supposed to be a comedy but the people did not really laugh much (I suppose because they didn’t understand the play). Unfortunately the actors were not playing their roles convincingly and some had a really bad Austrian accent. Yet the most disturbing aspect was the actresses playing the roles of men, this seemed very unprofessional to me. Additionally, the play was indeed long, which led numerous people from the audience to boredom and disinterest (the wife of my teacher fell asleep). Though I really liked the story of the play and I would definitely recommend it to others BUT with a different cast and another stage. ;)For those who don't like the theater and would like to see it, there is also a movie about the story with Colin Firth in the main cast. I haven't seen the movie yet so I can't promise that it is good but hey, you have nothing to lose.
“The importance of being Earnst” is based on a screenplay by Oscar Wilde who was born in Dublin in 1854 and died in Paris in 1900. This play is about Jack Worthing, who was found as a little baby in a traveller’s handbag on a train station called Victoria Station. He grows up on the countryside and decides to move into the city as Earnest Worthing where he gets to know Algernon Moncrieff. After Jack becomes Algernon’s best friend he falls in love with Algernon’s cousin Gwendolyn Fairfax, and wants to propose to her. A certain time later Algernon finds a cigarette case bearing the inscription, "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack”. Jack is forced to admit that he’s living a double life and proposes to Gwendolyn in the absence of her mother, Lady Bracknell, and her cousin. Then Algernon leaves to visit his sick friend, Bunburry. He meets Cecily who is Jack’s ward and introduces himself as “Earnest”. After a while he falls in love with her, and they get engaged. Meanwhile Gwendolyn and her mother arrive. Gwendolyn meets Cecily realizing they were both lied to. Soon they confront their fiancées and discover that they lied about their names. Lady Bracknell recognizes Miss Prism, the governess, and it turns out that twenty-eight years earlier, as a family nursemaid, she took a baby boy for a walk and never returned. Miss Prism explains that she had absentmindedly put the manuscript of a novel in the buggy and the baby in a handbag, which she had left at Victoria Station. Jack, the elder son of Lady Bracknell's sister (thus indeed Algernon's older brother), shows the very same handbag, clarifying that he is the lost baby. Gwendolyn remains certain that she can only love a man named Earnest. Eventually, Lady Bracknell informs Jack that as the first-born, he would have been named after his father, General Moncrieff. Jack examines army lists and discovers that his father's name was in fact Earnest. In the End, the couples hug each other and the curtain closes.
This play was supposed to be a comedy but the people did not really laugh much (I suppose because they didn’t understand the play). Unfortunately the actors were not playing their roles convincingly and some had a really bad Austrian accent. Yet the most disturbing aspect was the actresses playing the roles of men, this seemed very unprofessional to me. Additionally, the play was indeed long, which led numerous people from the audience to boredom and disinterest (the wife of my teacher fell asleep). Though I really liked the story of the play and I would definitely recommend it to others BUT with a different cast and another stage. ;)For those who don't like the theater and would like to see it, there is also a movie about the story with Colin Firth in the main cast. I haven't seen the movie yet so I can't promise that it is good but hey, you have nothing to lose.
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