The Importance of being Earnest

Categry : Play (Romantic comedy)
Author : Oscar Wilde

It was the first time that my entire team (well almost entire team) went out for a play together and what fun it was!!Rangashankara and Evam were showcasing a very famous play by Oscar Wilde - "The Importance of being Earnest". After having read it in high school (this time as part of the curriculum:-)) , I was more than willing and too excited to watch this play . Here is the story.....

In one line, the play is about how two gentlemen win their lady loves and how it unfolds into a comic revelation. The plot is set-up in Victorian era and seems to have come straight out from Jane Austen's novels (in Deepika's words). Jack Worthing, a countryman shuttles between country-side and the city of London for both work and pleasure.To preserve his social standing and due to societal pressures, he takes up the false name of "Earnest" when in city . However to be able to come to London oftener he pretends to have a brother named Earnest in the city .In one such trip to London he falls in love with Gwendolin. Jack has a friend called Algernon, who happens to find out the truth about Jack , goes to Jack's home pretending to be Earnest and ends up falling in love with his ward, Cecily.The tragedy however is that both Gwendolin and Cecily are in love with Earnest (or so to say just the name "Earnest" ). Further spicing up the situation is Aunt Augusta, Gwendolin's mother and Algernon's aunt, who wont allow the matrimony of Jack and Gwendolin, becuase she doesn't consider Jack to be of good socio-economic prominence.How Jack and Algernon convince their lady loves and how the situation unfolds into several comic revelations is what follows..

The play is filled with hilarious moments and witty dialogues.Although the plot is predictable, there is never a moment when you get bored or not feel connected to the characters. In fact we all were too much into the play that the first thing we wanted to do during the interval was to treat ourselves to muffins and tea cakes :-) . And ofcourse if not more, for a split second each one of us thought of going for the auditions which were going to happen the next day :-). A must watch for all theater lovers .....

Watched with my team (Adithya , Anil Ram, Deepika, Jagadish, Karthik, Nithilan, Vivek , Me) on 10thJan2009 at Rangashankara, B'lore.