Importance of Being Earnest

ANNOTATION

Wilde's enduring comedy of manners focuses on Jack and Algernon, two young men in love with girls both determined to marry someone named Earnest. 2 cassettes.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

About the Author

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He graduated from Oxford University in 1878 with a reputation as a brilliant scholar and quickly dazzled London society with his wit and his flamboyant dress. His first literary successes came in the 1880s with his lecture tour of America and the publication of his fairy tales. These were followed by five highly polished plays and The Picture of Dorian Gray, all completed during the first half of the 1890s. After losing a slander suit over accusations of his homosexual behavior, Wilde was prosecuted and spent two years in prison. Following his release in 1897, estranged from his wife and children, Wilde moved to Paris, where he died in 1900.

SYNOPSIS

Oscar Wilde￯﾿ﾽs genius was such that he created masterpieces in every literary form he attempted, whether it be plays, fiction, essays, or poetry.

Among his plays, The Importance of Being Earnest￯﾿ﾽthe last he wrote￯﾿ﾽis certainly the most celebrated. H. G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw thought it one of the funniest plays ever written, and it has continued to amuse theatergoers the world over for more than a century. The play pokes fun at the aristocracy, the literary world, and British manners and customs, while calling into question the very notion of ￯﾿ﾽidentity.￯﾿ﾽ The characters￯﾿ﾽ plans are constantly sent topsy-turvy by unexpected turns of events. Along the way, Wilde￯﾿ﾽs wit-sharpened dialogue skewers nearly everyone, throwing into high relief the strains of class pretension, social ambition, and romantic gamesmanship.

Readers who have enjoyed Oscar Wilde￯﾿ﾽs barbed prose will find his pointed dramatic dialogue equally enticing.

FROM THE CRITICS

AudioFile

Shaun MacLaughlin's direction of this Wilde play strives for an effective dramatic reading, rather than a fully realized radio-drama production with sound effects and atmospheric music.The production uses a narrator (Michael Drew) to read the stage directions. Such directorial emphasis calls attention to Wilde's brilliant dialogue and the strong performances. In THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, one of the most celebrated of all stage comedies, a faster pace helps Greg Wise and Richard Pearce sound young and carefree as they concoct witty deceptions to pursue their sweethearts. Wilde's comic attack on the shams of superficial earnestness in late-Victorian society finds rich expression in Miriam Margolyes's comically formidable Lady Bracknell. She plays the role slightly less broadly than Edith Evans did in the old Angel recording, and her performance keeps with MacLaughlin's subtle approach to Wilde's comedy of manners. G.H. ￯﾿ﾽ AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

AudioFile - Glenn Hopp