The Importance Of Being Earnest - Theatre Royal Haymarket

The Importance Of Being Earnest

The Theatre Royal Haymarket will briefly be the home of “The Importance of Being Earnest” in 2012 as the Oscar Wilde classic finds itself in the West End. The ‘trivial comedy’ is a production of the Old Red Lion and will open at the end of January, plugging the gap between “The Lion In Winter” and “One Man, Two Guvnors”.

In “The Importance of Being Earnest” we meet an array of characters that, instead of being earnest, pretend to be something they are not to get out of their obligations. There’s the two girls with earnest to marry and two gentlemen wishing to respond, whilst another has food on her mind.

Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People” was first seen by London theatre audiences back in 1895 when it premiered at St James’s Theatre – a performance that has gone down in history. Between then and its arrival at the Theatre Royal Haymarket it has grown in popularity, with its legacy sealed as a monumental and influential play. It is famous for treating various social conventions with in a ‘trivial’ manner and for the various movie and radio versions that it has spawned throughout the decades in the 20th century, in addition to operas and international translations.

Audiences wishing to pick up theatre tickets to witness “The Importance of Being Earnest” will have a brief window when it runs at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from Tuesday 31st January 2012 to Saturday 11th February 2012.