The Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
"The Importance of Being Serious" is an eyewitness comedy set in Victorian England. Algernon lives in London and says he has a sick friend in the country. He uses his visits to his imaginary friend to get rid of things. His best friend is Ernest de Jack, and he does the same. There are many misunderstandings in this comedy. "The truth is rarely pure and never simple", "... in married life, three are corporations and two are not." Is this game a "unique work of art," as Oscar Wilde believed? Or, as one critic of the first night in 1895 argued, "it represents nothing, it means nothing, it means nothing"? It's up to you.
