Theater Bartlesville - The Importance of Being Earnest

Theater Bartlesville presents "The Importance of Being Earnest" The main message of Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest is that one should treat trivial things in life seriously and serious things with studied triviality. The play inverts the values of everyday life by poking fun at serious topics like death, love, and religion, while taking trivialities seriously. First performed in 1895, the play tells the story of two men, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, who both assume the identity of a fictional man named Ernest, leading them both to fall in love and find an assortment of problems along the way. The play also explores other themes, including: The art of deception: The play explores the relationship between life and art, and the conflict between fact and fiction. The pursuit of marriage: The play is a marriage plot that explores the social etiquette errors and romantic upheavals that occur as Jack and Algernon pursue Gwendolen and Cecily. Performance: The play explores the idea of performance, and how the characters' personalities change and remain unchanged within these performances. The play's title is a pun on the word "earnest," which means being sincere, serious, or honest.