The importance of being earnest

A trivial comedy for serious people.  

Oscar Wilde’s blazing wit gets a stylish new production from award-winning director and comedy afficionado Sarah Giles, who last had us in stitches with the madcap mid-century farce No Pay? No Way!.

Sparkling with devilish quips and lush period design, this gold-standard comedy sings with contemporary relevance, shrewdly lampooning the snobbery and hypocrisy of extreme wealth and excess. 

Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff are thick as thieves. They’re also living double lives. In the quaint countryside they’re pious gents, but in the city they’re playboys with a libertine reputation. Their absurdly luxurious lifestyle, usually lived without a care in the world, is rudely interrupted when love enters the mix, and the pair struggle to keep track of who they’re pretending to be and when. 

A brilliant ensemble cast – Gareth Davies, Melissa Kahraman, Lucia Mastrantone, Brandon McClelland, Sean O'Shea, Emma O'Sullivan, Bruce Spence, Helen Thomson, Megan Wilding, Charles Wu – takes on this battle between the haves and have-nots, packed with Wilde quips and devastating one-liners. 

Widely regarded as one of the best theatrical comedies ever written, The Importance of Being Earnest is a razor-sharp and endlessly relevant reminder of our tendency to get hung up on small trivialities while the important things in life pass us by.