Bamberg  University  English  Drama  Group
proudly presents
the 1998 production of

Oscar Wilde's
 

The Importance of Being Earnest

 

The  Players  (in  order  of  appearance)

 

Lane (butler to Mr. Moncrieff) .................. Kenneth Wynne
Algernon Moncrieff .................................. Alexander Hedler
John Worthing ......................................... Tobias Dennehy
Lady Bracknell ........................................ Roman Christa
Gwendolen Fairfax .................................. Romana Lautner
Miss Prism ............................................. Christina Klaproth
Cecily Cardew ........................................ Sabine Zillig
Rev. Canon Chasuble .............................. Mark Urmann
Merriman (butler to Mr. Worthing) ............ Barney Craven

 

The  Experts

 

Language coaching .... Kenneth Wynne (and Tina !)
Lighting / sound ......... Volkhart Baumgärtner
Paintings ................... Thomas Michel
Stage design ............. Cornelia Daig-Kastura / Thomas Michel
Props ....................... E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Theater
Costumes ................. the Cast (well, mainly Toby...)
Make-Up .................. Elke Stein, Dagmar Kohnle,
  Dorothee Munz, Constanze Reißer
Director’s Assistant .... Heike Polster
Front of house ........... Heike Polster and Team
Poster design / PR ..... Cornelia Daig-Kastura
Photographs .............. Heike Polster

Stage construction by Hans-Joachim Rockel
Lighting design by Markus Göppner

Directed by Cornelia Daig-Kastura


The  Play
 

"We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the
serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality".
This is how Oscar Wilde described the philosophy of The Importance of Being Earnest, his most sparkling, witty and light-hearted play of aristocratic manners and high society. Earnest, Oscar Wilde’s most famous and - posthumously - most successfull play, was first produced by George Alexander at the St. James’ Theatre on 14 February 1895. London was enduring a prolonged and severe spell of cold weather: several theatres advertised their steam-heating among the attractions of the programme, and the first night of Wilde’s comedy had been put off from 12 February because several women in the cast had bad colds.

Summary:


 
 

John Worthing, a carefree young gentleman, uses his fictitious brother "Ernest" as an excuse to leave his home and responsibility to go to the big city of London, where he masquerades as Ernest.

  
John is deeply in love with his friend Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. Under the name of Ernest, John has won Gwendolen's love. Unfortunately, her reason for wanting to marry him stems from her intense infatuation with the name of Ernest.
       
    There is, however, a formidable wall which separates the young lovers: Gwendolen's mother, Lady Bracknell. She discovers that John was a foundling left in a handbag at Victoria Railroad Station, and therefore does not see John as a suitable husband for her daughter.
     

Returning to the country home where he lives with his ward Cecily Cardew and her governess Miss Prism, John finds that Algernon has also arrived and has presented himself as the nonexistent brother, Ernest - having fallen madly in love with beautiful Cecily.

  She has long been enthralled with her guardian's fictional brother, Ernest, and wholeheartedly returns Algernon's affection. Problems arise when Gwendolen, thinking herself engaged to „Ernest", arrives at the country home and is informed of „Ernest's" engagement to Cecily.
       
   
Chaos erupts with the arrival of Lady Bracknell, who is determined to save her daughter from a socially unsuitable marriage.
 
 
 
 

Through John's final and lucky discovery of his true identity, all problems are solved and the play ends as it should end: with three couples in a joyous embrace.


 

The  Author

   Oscar Fingal O’ Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on 16 October 1854 at 21 Westland Row, Dublin. His father was a well known eye specialist who was to be knighted for his services to medicine in 1884. He was outlived by his wife, née Jane Francesca Elgee, who died in 1896. Lady Wilde had grounded her two sons in the classics and introduced them to English, French and Italian literature so that when Oscar went to board at the Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, he was far ahead of the other pupils in academic ability and literary culture. In 1871 he went to Trinity College, Dublin, and proved himself a brilliant scholar. Three years later Wilde moved to Oxford where he entered Magdalen College which he left in 1878 after winning the Newdigate Prize for Poetry and gaining a first in Greats.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

When, in 1878, Wilde descended on London he had little else to his credit, as he himself was to declare, than his genius, a commodity which, at that stage in his career, had little attraction for bank managers or money-lenders. Cash he certainly lacked, at any rate in comparison with the income of some of his friends and the society which he intended to enter at the first possible opportunity. Almost inevitably he turned his attention to dramatic work - writing for the stage. The theatre was immensely popular throughout the whole of the 19th century and offered rich rewards to popular dramatists - one of which Wilde soon became.

 
  • When The Importance of Being Earnest opened in 1895, it was from first to last a resounding triumph. The audience rose in their seats and cheered and cheered again. In general the critics were equally enthusiastic and the whole of London, social, literary, frivolous and serious, agreed that there was not a more amusing evening to be spent anywhere than at the St. James’ Theatre. 

Wilde’s (s)wordplay and slashing wit


"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

Oscar Wilde's witty remark projects a major theme of The Importance of Being Earnest. "Truth" in Victorian England was expressed in stagnant social conventions which suppressed individual expression. Wilde hated this conventional notion of truth because it was used to keep blinders on society and blocked individuals from looking at life from different angles. Earnest is Wilde's most perfect attempt to fence with Victorian mores. Wilde uses his wit like a sword to slash through rules of etiquette, to poke fun at the aristocracy and academia, and to thrust forward his own philosophy as a committed aesthete (one who finds truth and meaning only in beauty). 

"You cut life to pieces with your epigrams," exclaims one of Wilde's characters in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. However, Wilde never makes a direct stab in Earnest. By emphasizing the absurdity of the characters' situation he maintains a comic tone. As is typical of farce, the characters have attitudes, reactions, and customs which defy reason. Indeed, the improbability of this farce provides the necessary distance for the audience to laugh at the situation. This quality explains why the play enjoyed such success with the elite crowd who attended its first performance. Although Wilde was "biting the hand which fed him," Earnest bites in a gentle, playful way, always retaining a joyful quality while avoiding both cynicism and sentimentality. 
A major theme in Earnest is John Worthing's search for his own identity. John inquires, "Lady Bracknell, I hate to seem inquisitive, but would you kindly inform me who I am?" Both John and Algernon are dandies who seek to escape the restrictive moral mask of Victorian etiquette and be true to their own impulses. The audience cheers their playful schemes as they artfully dodge the conventions of the day. Wilde admires those with the courage to follow their impulses because they have thrown off the shackles of an imposed identity. He proclaims that "disobedience is the first step in the growth of a man or a nation." 

Wilde's work would, perhaps, have been more appreciated during the reign of Charles II, when witty repartee was the hallmark of Restoration comedies, than during the repressive Victorian era in which he wrote. He utilizes some of the same themes as Restoration comedy and his play is clearly within the tradition of comedy of manners. This type of play is usually focused on an elite social group which relies more on wit and intellectual repartee than on emotional depth or complexity. Gwendolyn states that "in matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing." She is explaining one of Wilde's fundamental beliefs. He does not advocate insincerity, but rather the idea that the aim of art, as well as life, is to seek beauty. Sincerity without style, without a sense of the beautiful, is undesirable. Wilde often ruminated that Nature should copy Art, not vice versa. "Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art." 
    Wilde celebrates artificiality (Art over Nature) because in beauty one finds a truth that is infinitely more intriguing and pleasurable than fact. In order to distance the viewers from their own narrow view of truth, Wilde has turned the real world on its head and "treat(s) all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality." 
Wilde's particular style of wit uses epigrams (a terse, satirical saying) to attack perceptions of fixed truth. He would often substitute key words in a sentence to produce its opposite meaning. For example, "I hear her hair has turned quite gold from grief," "Divorces are made in heaven," "The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man," "It is simply washing one's clean linen in public," "All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling." 
    Wilde's deliberate manipulation of epigrams challenged the conventional values and expectations of the period. He created a world which wages war on ordinary speech and mundane everyday life. Farce is the perfect medium for this battle since it uses exaggerated life situations to make its point. By changing the key word of a "moral" tag, Wilde turns the phrase and the sentiment in upon itself, exposing middle class assumptions and biases. In fact, he deliberately distorts expectations by allowing the characters' unexpected thoughts, attitudes and reactions to expose the hypocrisy of social convention. Sense and nonsense, fantasy and reason, triviality and seriousness are jumbled together, forcing new perspectives and offering new possibilities.

Wilde's satire jabbed at a world which disdainfully and harshly judged his life. In the end, however, he was destroyed by his foe, Victorian society. Earnest was the last play Wilde wrote before he went to prison on a charge of sexual misconduct.     It was, in fact, during the opening night of The Importance of Being Earnest and at Wilde's height of fame as a playwright (he had two West End hits in London running simultaneously) that a sequence of events occurred which would bring about his public disgrace. He was accused of having an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas by the Marquess of Queensberry, Douglas' powerful and influential father. 
    Queensberry tried to break into the opening performance of Earnest to publicly humiliate Wilde. He was denied entrance to the theatre, but following the huge success of the opening night he plotted other means to bring about Oscar's downfall. Wilde parried the charge of sexual impropriety in three separate trials but without success. He was publicly disgraced, defeated and sentenced to two years in prison. 

    Wilde ultimately triumphed, however, since his wit has outlived both Victorian mores and his enemies. His legacy continues to challenge our expectations and entertain us. His sparkling epigrams still prick contemporary perceptions of truth and convention. Through The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde continues to poke fun at those who take life too seriously and become far too earnest!


 

... and the press said...

 

(Fränkischer Tag vom 22. Juli 1998)

 

Eine spritzige Keller-Alternative
English Drama Group der Universität spielt Oscar Wilde

Die Hitze tat den Besucherzahlen keinen Abbruch - die Premiere der Bamberg University English Drama Group mit "The Importance of Being Earnest" von Oscar Wilde war ausverkauft. Und die Besucher hatten das Vergnügen, eine spritzige Komödie zu sehen.

Die Geschichte: John Worthing (Tobias Dennehy) ist ein junger Mann, der sich einen fiktiven Bruder namens „Ernest" erfunden hat, der ihm als Vorwand dient, den Landsitz zu verlassen und nach London zu fahren. Dort spielt er dieses Spiel genau anders herum. Als „Ernest" verliebt er sich in die Cousine seines Freundes Algernon (Alexander Hedler), Gwendolen (Romana Lautner). Ihre Mutter, Lady Bracknell (Roman Christa), sperrt sich allerdings gegen diese Liaison, und das um so mehr, als sie herausfindet, daß der Schwiegersohn in spe ein Findelkind und ergo nicht standesgemäß ist. Als John auf seinen Landsitz zurückkehrt, wo er mit seinem Mündel Cecily (Sabine Zillig) und deren Gouvernante Miss Prism (Christina Klaproth) lebt, muß er feststellen, daß vor ihm schon sein Freund Algernon angekommen ist, der sich für seinen nicht existierenden Bruder ausgibt. Als „Ernest" hat er sich in Cecily verliebt - und sie sich in ihn und seinen Namen. Als dann auch noch Gwendolen auftaucht, sind Verwechslungen, Eifersucht und Streitereien vorprogrammiert. Trotzdem scheint das Happy-End schon fast perfekt - doch dann findet sich Lady Bracknell auf der Suche nach ihrer Tochter ein. Soviel kann schon verraten werden: Es gibt ein Happy-End (mit drei glücklichen Pärchen!), aber vorher noch eine dicke Überraschung...

Mehrmals waren sich die Premierengäste einig: Szenenapplaus war angebracht! Vor allem Roman Christa als Lady Bracknell sorgte immer wieder für große Lacherfolge. Er wurde der herrischen und aristokratischen Dame mit seinen Bewegungen, der verstellten Stimme und nicht zuletzt mit seiner Statur absolut gerecht.
Ausnahmslos alle Darsteller - alle Studenten der Universität - sprechen ein klares, sicheres und bis in die letzte Reihe verständliches Englisch, über das sie die Beherrschung auch in hektischen Situationen (beim Nachlaufen um die Wohnzimmercouch oder bei handfesten Streitereien) nicht verlieren.
Wer genau aufpaßt, entdeckt Kleinigkeiten, die die ganze Vorstellung abrunden und ihr so den letzten Schliff geben: Vor der Pause haben Cecily und Gwendolen gerade das falsche Spiel ihrer beiden „Ernests" enttarnt - dann geht das Licht an, und als Pausenfüller ertönt „Männer sind Schweine".
„The Importance of Being Earnest" bietet noch dreimal die Möglichkeit, die lebendige fränkische Keller-Atmosphäre gegen ebenso lebendiges englisches Landhaus-Flair einzutauschen. Das Stück (Regie: Cornelia Daig-Kastura) wird noch von Donnerstag bis Samstag jeweils um 20 Uhr im Studio am Markusplatz aufgeführt.

(coc)
 

Our  special  thanks  goes  to:

 

Gustav Matschl, Kulturreferent und Bürgermeister der Stadt Bamberg, and Rainer Lewandowski, Director of the E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Theater for their permission to use the studio

The very friendly staff of the E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Theater for being ever so helpful in many ways.
In particular:

  • Rudi Oppelt, chief technician, for his great cooperation and help
  • Hans-Joachim „Rocky" Rockel, for building a great stage setting
  • Markus Göppner for a wonderful lighting design
  • Detlef Rezepka for Lady B.’s terrific hairdo
  • Stefan Dzierzawa, for being our "go-between" with the theatre
  • Gabi Lepthien for the organization of props, mainly " a brown leather handbag with a handle to it"
  • Jürgen „Jogi" Hanelt for always being prepared to record the piano - even if it didn’t happen...


Ingeborg Peñalba, for invaluable help and infinite patience with the ticket reservations

Gerhard Fleck, Director of the Stadtsparkasse Bamberg and Werner Gallenz and Mathias Polz, Werbeabteilung Stadtsparkasse Bamberg, for generous support

Thomas Michel for the loan of beautiful art work - which can be purchased, by the way

Jörg Weese for helping out in a moment of desperate need - thanks for working hard at being awful

Druckerei Gerald Schembs, Nürnberg, for help with the posters

Hossfeld & Zahn- die Brillenmacher GmbH, Obstmarkt 12, Bamberg for loan of glasses

Professor Klaus-Peter Jochum, Lehrstuhl Englische Literaturwissenschaft, and Professor Heiner Bus, Lehrstuhl Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft, for encouragement and support

Peter Braun for the donation of half a cucumber - and for spreading the good news through the air
 

and last but not least a very personal thank-you to
Heike - „You have done a beautiful action today" - and not just today!
 

 

©  another „wild" production 1998

Pics from "Importanc of Being Earnest" (1998)