Preview: The Importance of Being Earnest

With only days to go before the curtain rises, I sat down with The Importance of Being Earnest’s director Manon Harvey to get a glimpse into their “absurd, eccentric and bizarre” production of Wilde’s beloved satire.

For those unfamiliar with the production, “imagine you have told a lie to avoid a certain commitment” (your sixth unexpected bout of Covid perhaps that makes it impossible to attend a supervision?) and “now imagine that this lie begins to take over your whole life”. Add in some “disapproving aunts, eager fiancés and promises which cannot be kept” and – voila – you have entered into the opulent, bewildering and brilliant world of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Image credit: Manon Harvey

Wilde’s show is a skilful critique of the “shallow hypocrisy and opulence of Victorian society”. Manon highlights, however, that their production presents this beloved play in a new light and setting. Rather than sticking to the traditional Victorian backdrop, this production has been reimagined in a form that we all know and love (or love to hate), a Kardashian-esque LA mansion.

Exploring the “dramatic and materialistic lives of the uber-rich in southern California”, the show seeks to “expose the shallow and ridiculous lives of rich Americans” in the same manner that “Wilde aimed to emphasise the hypocrisy of Victorian society”.

The performance is staged in Christ’s Chapel – an intriguing setting indeed. By juxtaposing the “opulence and formality of Christ’s Chapel with the silliness of the play”, Manon hopes to “emphasise the absurdity of affluent places” and explore how institutions with an air of grandeur can still be plagued by the “trivial nature of human beings”.

Image credit: Manon Harvey

This undercutting of great institutions makes The Importance of Being Earnest the “perfect performance” for a Cambridge audience, Manon asserts, as students “are already surrounded by a huge amount of pretentiousness and absurdity”. Manon hopes that audiences will “enjoy being able to laugh at both the familiarity and the ludicrousness of the production”.

Promoting the message that “nothing is as serious as it seems”, The Importance of Being Earnest may be the perfect production to remind audiences that encroaching exams are not the be-all or end-all. Rather, “No matter how formalised or traditional or strict something is, there is always humour to be found” (even though that might be bombing your exams in a spectacular manner…).

The Importance of Being Earnest is showing on the 29^th – 30^th of April at 7 pm at Christ’s Chapel. Tickets can be purchased here.

Feature image credit: Ayesha Murphy Jallai

Three more articles recommended by this author: 

• Where to find budget-friendly May Ball dresses in Cambridge
• The 12 most annoying people you’ll meet at Cambridge 
• Why intercollege sport is the best thing about Cambridge