Booking to 20 September 2014
An all-star cast including Nigel Havers, Sian Phillips, Martin Jarvis and Cherie Lunghi lead this revival of Oscar Wilde’s witty comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, at the Harold Pinter Theatre.
Oscar Wilde’s sparkling comedy The Importance of Being Earnest returns to the West End this summer is a brand new production directed by Lucy Bailey (Fortune’s Fool) and designed by William Dudley.
Lucy Bailey’s production imagines a fictional Bunbury Players putting on the show, as they have done for decades! The players may be getting older and older, but they have grown into the roles, with hilarious effect!
Running from 27 June to 20 September 2014 at the Harold Pinter Theatre, the production features a dazzling cast of some of Britain’s best-loved stage and screen stars.
THE CAST
An all-star cast features Rosalind Ayres (Outnumbered) as Miss Prism, Niall Buggy (Uncle Vanya) as Reverend Chasuble, Nigel Havers (Downton Abbey) as Algernon, Martin Jarvis (Endeavour) as Jack, Christine Kavanagh (Basket Case) as Cecily, Cherie Lunghi (The Manageress) as Gwendolen and Siân Phillips (Marlene) as Lady Bracknell.
THE STORY
Oscar Wilde’s much loved masterpiece opens as two bachelors, the dependable John Worthing J.P. and upper class playboy Algernon Moncrieff, create different identities for themselves in order to pursue two eligible young ladies: Cecily Cardew and Gwendolyn Fairfax. The hilarious misadventures which result from their subterfuge, including brushes with the inimitable Lady Bracknell and the uptight Miss Prism, makes for a plot full of twists and some of the wittiest and most sparkling dialogue ever written for the stage.
Show Information
Venue Information
Harold Pinter Theatre, 6 Panton Street, London, SW1Y 4DNNearest Tube or Train: Piccadilly Circus (Piccadilly line, Bakerloo line)
Nearest Buses: 3, 6, 9, 12, 14, 15, 19, 22, 23, 24, 29, 38, 88, 91, 94, 139, 159, 176, 453
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what ? Martin Jarvis is 73 and Nigel Havers is 62 – playing young men ?
an absolute nonsense and what do many young budding actors feel about this ?
Hi Clive – I think that there is a play-within-a-play happening in this production, the idea being that a rather elderly amateur dramatics group is staging Wilde’s comedy, hence the casting of older actors.