Tag: The Importance of Being Earnest

Announcement

Oscariana in Dublin

Oscar Wilde Blog2 Comments
Oscariana: A Wilde Dublin Festival

https://oscariana.ie/

In its inaugural year, Oscariana is a celebration of the birth of one of Ireland’s greatest sons. Join the good folks at Wilde’s childhood home and other locations in Dublin for a fabulous festival taking place from October 14-16, 2023.

Hear Oscar’s fairytales in the very nursery where he spent his childhood. Experience the acclaimed guided tour of Oscar Wilde House – the amazing and tragic stories of the Wilde family, in the very rooms where the dramas took place. See the dark and dangerous 1945 film noir version of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar’s novel that caused a scandal, in the stylish and historic Stella Cinema in Rathmines. Laugh along with Wilde’s comic genius with the epic, technicolour 1952 version of The Importance of Being Earnest at Smithfield’s Lighthouse Cinema. See the classic Wildean play The Importance of Being Oscar in a room overlooking Merrion Park and Oscar’s iconic statue.

Oscar’s mother’s famous weekly gatherings of musicians, politicians and poets at One Merrion Square were famous across the 20 years or more the Wildes lived at the house. Sample what is was like to be at one of these events with our online event – Speranza’s Salon. This is a look inside the house, where you will be taken on a historic journey and see the artists, musicians and poets of today, performing in the rooms where the salons took place.

Visit the web site for schedule, tickets, and more.

© John Cooper, 2023

Article · Review

Time: The Present

Oscar Wilde Blog3 Comments

I live in terror of not being misunderstood

—Arcane Allusions in The Importance of Being Earnest—

If Oscar Wilde really did live in terror of not being misunderstood—as he wrote in The Critic as Artist in 1891, he need not have worried. At least not so far as his plays are concerned, because there are parts of the texts now so arcane that they are almost bound to be misunderstood—if they are understood at all.

Take Wilde’s most famous play The Importance of Being Earnest. 

Continue reading “Time: The Present” →
News · Review

“Earnest in Town”

Oscar Wilde Blog5 Comments
Alanna J. Smith, Daniel Fredrick, Lauren Sowa, Mary Martello and Jake Blouch. Photo by Mark Garvin.
Alanna J. Smith, Daniel Fredrick, Lauren Sowa, Mary Martello and Jake Blouch. Photo by Mark Garvin
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia

With its marble columns and lobby posters of productions past, the Walnut Street Theatre is a venerable venue that claims, dubiously, that Jefferson and Lafayette attending its opening night performance?1

Within the neoclassical Federal shell of the Walnut can often be found the kernel of fine scenic design, tasteful costumes, and knowledgeable subscribers. One imagines, therefore, that a sledgehammer would not be utilized in revealing itself. Unfortunately, such had been the case on my recent visits to witness the repertory’s assaults on Agatha Christie and Noel Coward. 

So it was more with a sense of duty and dread, than enthusiasm, that my band of Philadelphia Wildeans revisited the scene of those crimes to see The Importance of Being Earnest. 

Would the Wilde play be similarly executed?

Continue reading ““Earnest in Town”” →