The Public Staging Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ (Thurs., 3/28/24)

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST by Oscar Wilde, adapted by Jenny Koons. Pittsburgh Public Theater. March 27 – April 14. 

Oscar Wilde’s funniest play was his last. The Importance of Being Earnest premiered in London in 1895, just as the controversy that ruined Wilde’s career was coming to a boil: He was in a same-sex love affair with the son of an English nobleman who objected mightily. Although Earnest is popular for its sheer silliness, it may contain sly allusions to Wilde’s real-life predicament. The central character is a man who enjoys having a secret identity, and wants to marry the—ahem—daughter of Lady Bracknell, an upper-crusty English noblewoman. Earnest was a hit when it opened, for its clever twitting of the era’s social conventions, and has aged well due to its nonstop flow of ditzy dialogue in absurd situations. You’ve got to love a play with lines like “To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.” Pittsburgh Public Theater presents The Importance of Being Earnest in an adaptation by New York-based theater artist Jenny Koons, who also directs. 8 p.m. In the O’Reilly Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Cultural District. (M.V.)

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