Wilde, Wit and a Recklessly Inadequate Number of Actors

Oscar Wilde’s most famous comedy is coming to the Fairfield House Courtyard... with just two actors attempting to play everybody.
What could possibly go wrong?

Jack is in love with Gwendolen. Algernon is rather interested in Cecily. Gwendolen and Cecily are both determined to marry a man called Ernest. Lady Bracknell is determined that almost nobody should marry anybody. And somewhere in all of this there is a governess, a clergyman, a mysterious past, an alarming quantity of cucumber sandwiches and, eventually, a handbag.

In this fast, playful new adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest, Anton Bentley and Myles Smalley take on eight characters, hurtling through Wilde’s deliciously ridiculous world of romance, deception, double lives and very bad behaviour in extremely good clothes.

Expect rapid character changes, theatrical chaos and some of the funniest dialogue ever written, as two actors attempt to keep Oscar Wilde’s perfectly constructed comedy from coming spectacularly unstuck.

Adapted and directed by Anton Bentley, this is Earnest with all the wit, romance and glorious absurdity of the original, but considerably fewer actors than any sensible person would recommend.

Piece of Work Productions returns to the beautiful Fairfield House Courtyard following its popular productions of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Servant of Two Masters and The Magic Flute.

Make an evening of it. Food trucks will be serving from approximately 5.30 pm, with the performance beginning at 6.30 pm under the Nelson summer sky.

Come for dinner. Stay for Wilde.

And whatever you do, don't mislay the handbag.