The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

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In a word: Bunbury

In a sentence: When two women both have an independent proclivity for the name Ernest, but as no man exists, hijinx ensue.

Synopsis: Two young women in love, two young men with alter-egos, and two Ernests?

Reactions: Wilde claims to have had an important premise in mind for this tongue-in-cheek, whimsical play: “We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.” I believe, however, that he simply thought to himself one day, “How ironic would it be if a man named Ernest was a liar? Or better yet, was a lie himself?” and then proceeded to write a play about the hilarity that might ensue.

My single critique of this wonderful little treat for the stage is that I suspect that every character is more or less Oscar Wilde himself, and that The Importance of Being Earnest is in fact nothing but a ludicrous one man show in which Wilde himself runs around the stage talking to himself in the guises of various Ernests and Mr. Worthings. This is not necessarily a drawback, however, as Wilde seems to be an excellent conversationalist, and has no trouble keeping up with himself regardless which character he happens to be writing for.

Read if: you wish to go Bunburying.