Bunbury - The Importance of Being Earnest

What's it about?

First performed in London on February 14, 1895, the play is one of Wilde's most successful dramas, in which he wittily and ironically attacks the Victorian upper class. This absurdly comical and bitingly wicked reckoning with hypocrisy and superficiality is one of the most frequently performed stage classics. In Heinz-Arthur Boltuch's fast-paced version, Oscar Wilde's comedy, peppered with linguistic wit, becomes a delightful theatrical treat. Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) was one of the first dandies who, eloquent and conspicuously dressed, confronted Victorian society with its primness. Content: Algernon and Jack are two dandies straight out of a picture book. They love pleasure and, in order to reconcile their extravagant passions with their social obligations, have invented a double life. Algernon has a sickly friend named Bunbury, so he can go to the countryside. And Jack has a frivolous brother named Ernest, because of whom he often has to go to the city. Absurdly, both fall in love with women whose life goal is to marry a man named Ernest. Which is convenient, as both Algernon and Jack pretend to be Ernest. From now on, a wild comedy about the ambiguity of language, seriousness, truth, and lies unfolds. In the end, it turns out that Jack was mistakenly left as a baby at Victoria Station and is in fact Algernon's brother. His name is actually Ernest. A happy ending all around.