TOUR DE FORCE THEATRE presents

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

by Oscar Wilde
Director Peter Joucla

when & where

Jack Worthing lives in the country and pretends to have a brother in London, called Ernest, so he has a perfect excuse to slip away to the city.

Jack's friend Algernon has created an imaginary friend called Bunbury, so that he too has a reason for escaping the tedium of his own social life in London.

Problems arise when Jack falls in love with Gwendolyn and Algernon falls in love with Cecily, even though both young women feel that they can only marry a man whose name is Ernest. Added to which there is Gwendolyn's tyrannical mother Lady Bracknell, who refuses to allow Jack to marry Gwendolyn when she discovers that as a baby he was discovered lying in a handbag, left at a railway station.

First performed at the St. James Theatre London on February 14 1895, this comedy of manners is the most famous of Oscar Wilde's works for the theatre. It is a masterpiece of truth about class and gender disguised as an airy trifle.

Tour de Force Theatre presents this wonderful play in its own unique style, in which comical physical theatre and visual humour match the wit already present in the text. Live music too adds a fresh and contemporary touch to the production, which can be seen in cities around Europe throughout the season of 2009 / 2010.

Wilde describes this play as being - 'a trivial comedy for serious people,' but that is not to say that there are not some real gems of truth to be found. As Algernon points out - 'The truth is rarely pure and never simple.' (One might believe this to be true otherwise serious people would not choose to lie quite as often as they do.) Lady Bracknell remarks that: 'Health is the primary duty of life,' Algernon claims that a marriage proposal is much more to do with business than pleasure, and my favourite from Miss Prism: 'People who live entirely for pleasure are usually unmarried.'

Many of the comic lines are simply a reversal of accepted reasoning and logic. Algernon for instance says that 'Divorces are made in Heaven' and Jack complains -'One can't go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance.

My aim in this production is not only to make this wonderful classic comedy shine as brightly as it did in 1895, but also to bring to life these accurate observations of life which I believe are perhaps more relevant today than they were in 1895.

Tour De Force last produced The Importance of Being Earnest in 2002 and we were delighted with its success. "Outstanding acting achievements were rewarded by the Trier public with thunderous applause and a standing ovation." ( Trierischer Volksfreund )

I am hoping that this production will resonate with today's audience as much as it did in 1895 - and in 2002.

Peter Joucla

1. act 60 min.
interval 15 min.
2. act 40 min.
total 1:55

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST