The Importance of Being Earnest

Since its debut in 1895 at London's St. James' Theatre, Oscar Wilde's most magnificent tour de force—a witty and effervescent comedy of manners—has charmed millions of people via innumerable productions. Not only is ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ praised for its clever but humorous plot, but it is also praised for its brilliant dialogue, which is full of brilliant epigrams that are still enjoyed by people who like good discussion.
The contentious comedy play written by a great dramatist that upended English social norms. From the play's lively opening scenes in Algernon Moncrieff's London apartment to its hilarious conclusion in the drawing room of Jack Worthing's Hertfordshire country estate, this comedic masterwork never fails to leave audiences gasping for more one-liners and surprising turns of events.

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." —Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)

Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford where, a disciple of Pater, he founded an aesthetic cult. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, and his two sons were born in 1885 and 1886.
His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and social comedies Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), established his reputation. In 1895, following his libel action against the Marquess of Queesberry, Wilde was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for homosexual conduct, as a result of which he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and his confessional letter De Profundis (1905). On his release from prison in 1897 he lived in obscurity in Europe, and died in Paris in 1900.