By Oscar Wilde
Director: Jonathan Price
Producer: Nathan Mudge

The game’s up! John Worthing is Jack when he’s in the country and Ernest when in town. But he’s not the only player with a ploy, and some of his nearest and dearest are already two steps ahead.

Oscar Wilde’s greatest work for the stage comes to Circa for a season of blistering wit, mistaken identities, and human hypocrisy so keenly observed you’d think it was written yesterday. A troupe of Aotearoa’s finest comic actors take the stage like a jazz band tearing through a bop classic.

Colourful, naughty, subversive, smart and fabulous, this Earnest finds a new home in an age still obsessed with appearances. This is Wilde with his top button undone and false lashes on. This is for anyone who’s used a filter, lied in a job interview or exaggerated on their Tinder profile.

When everyone shouts ‘Be yourself!’, The Importance of Being Earnest asks, now where’s the fun in that?

7 Oct–4 Nov
Preview 6 Oct
Circa One
Tues – Thurs 6.30pm, Fri – Sat 8pm, Sun 4pm
$30 – $55

Post-show Q&A – Tuesday 10 October 6.30pm

Performance change: The evening performance on the 14th October has been moved to a 4pm Matinee.

CAST:
John “Jack” Worthing, J.P.: Andrew Paterson
Algernon Moncrieff: Isobel Mackinnon
Gwendolen Fairfax: Ryan Carter
Cecily Cardew: Dawn Cheong
Lady Bracknell: Irene Wood
Miss Prism: Anne Chamberlain
Reverend Chasuble, D.D.: Peter Hambleton

PRODUCTION TEAM:
Director: Jonathan Price
Producer: Nathan Mudge
Production & Stage Manager: Anna Barker
Production Designer: Meg Rollandi
Lighting Designer: Isadora Lao
Sound Designer: Matt Asunder
Assistant Stage Manager: Kathy Keane
Set Constructor: Joshua Bourdeau
Graphic Designer: William Duignan

Theatre ,

120 minutes plus interval (estimate)