Wilde’s Witty Wordplay on Display at GWU
From February 26th through March 1st, the theatrical wizard of witty wordplay, Oscar Wilde, will be back on display in what is undoubtedly his best-known and best-beloved piece of stagecraft, The Importance of Being Earnest.
This “Trivial Comedy for Serious People,” as its author cheekily subtitled his play when it debuted in 1895, dances deftly among genres and styles, notoriously challenging to pin down though inevitably delicious to consume. A bit of RomCom, a bit of classic farce (after all, Wilde was blithely stealing from the likes of Plautus and Shakespeare to mix his effervescent concoction), and plenty of topical satire all come together and somewhat produce a whole even greater than the sum of its parts.
The revival is produced by Corcoran Theatre and Dance of George Washington University in the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre and directed by Tonya Beckman–one of the longtime stalwarts of Taffety Punk now turning her hand to the outwardly genteel but quietly subversive world of Wilde. She joined me by phone to talk about the play and the production, as you can hear here:
For tickets, times, and more information, you can go here
