The Importance of Being Earnest

<p><em>The Importance of Being Earnest </em>is perhaps Oscar Wilde's most popular play - since its first performance in 1895 it has seen countless productions and three film adaptations and in the words of the journalist Mark Lawson is 'the second most known and quoted play in English after<em> Hamlet'</em>.</p><p><br></p><p>Brimming with the counter-intuitive wit with which Wilde's name is synonymous the play follows two young men Algernon and Jack as they come to grips with one another's 'Bunburying' - deceits involving invented identities and escaping unwanted socialising - which spiral out of control. Culminating in a hauntingly brilliant scene with a cast of characters dripping with satire an unpublished manuscript and an unforgettable handbag <em>The Importance of Being Earnest</em> lambasts the Victorian yearning for morality and meaning and leaves the reader aching for an encore.</p>