The Deal
- $28 for two tickets to Guild Festival Theatre presents The Importance of Being Earnest (up to $58.70 value)
- When: select dates, July 23–August 10
- Where: Guild Gardens
- General admission
- Door time: 30 minutes before showtime
- Ticket values include all fees.
The Importance of Being Earnest
It seems like a straightforward strategy: if you want an earnest lover, seek out a man named Ernest. So goes the logic of not one but two of the heroines in Oscar Wilde's beloved play, The Importance of Being Earnest. The only problem is that it's easy enough to lie about one's name, especially in the days before first dates included retinal scans. John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff are the closest of friends—each knows the other well enough not to trust him. Each also has an attractive relative with a strong preference for the titular name. When the two rakes independently begin calling themselves "Ernest," and the four young people get together for a weekend in the country, what follows is a glorious pandemonium of wordplay and a gentle skewering of Victorian mores.
First performed in 1895, this comical farce has since returned to the stage in countless revivals, been adapted into an opera and a radio play, and made it onto the silver screen three times. It was the darling of critics on its initial run, but critical success wasn't enough to save Wilde from prison. After 86 performances, his homosexuality—a crime at the time—was revealed in the courts and the play was closed down. Upon release, Wilde fled to Paris and published the play, but wrote no further comic or dramatic work.
Guild Festival Theatre
Countless theatre troupes perform Shakespeare plays. But very few of them present them exclusively for young audiences. At Guild Festival Theatre, the ensemble strives to make William Shakespeare’s work appealing and relevant to youth culture. Whether they’re mounting a traditional Elizabethan production or infusing new life into a script with unconventional concepts and spilled baby food on the pages, the company takes pride in getting young people excited about live theatre.
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