Audition information
Audition date: Sunday 15th January 2023 at 2.30pm (Jetty)
Production dates: May 10th - 13th 2023 (inc. Saturday matinee May 13th)
Director: Peter Drew
The Importance of Being Earnest is an evergreen classic, and this original four act version will be our May 2023 production. The following are some notes and a character run down from the director.
Recently, I discovered during some lockdown reading that whilst Wilde wrote his most successful play in four acts in line with the playwriting convention of the time, the impresario who agreed to take it on would do so only on condition that, in line with the theatrical convention of the time, Wilde cut his play to three acts to allow for the obligatory curtain raiser.
Wilde agreed. Acts II and III were condensed into one act while two characters were omitted from the last act.
When his play was published in book form, it was unfortunate that it was the truncated three-act version that was printed. Each subsequent version has followed this pattern. Regrettably, the original four act version disappeared from view.
Happily, it was subsequently discovered to have survived in the form of a German translation published in Leipzig in 1903 from which the original English language four-act version was eventually successfully reconstructed.
We present the original four-act version.
Similarly, Wilde’s original stage directions at the head of the play specify ‘TIME: the present.’
Setting the play in modern times will not merely reflect his original intentions …and incidentally free it from the Victorian straitjacket which successive generations have imposed on it … it will also allow modern audiences to consider more clearly the extent to which the major themes of this witty, iconoclastic, paradoxical and timeless satire might be relevant to the present day.
Is marriage for business or pleasure? The marriage of Charles and Diana is perhaps a notable example within our own present-day experience of the continuing relevance of this debate.
Is the strict adherence to a rigid body of rules (‘earnestness’) or irreverence the true morality? We only have look at today’s political scene to realise the current relevance of Wilde’s satirical thesis.
So there it is. An established classic with a couple of new but completely authentic twists.
All the Earnest you know and love … and more!
Characters
John (Jack) Worthing MP - of the Manor House, Woolton, Hertfordshire
Algernon Moncrieff - Jack's friend
Rev. Canon Chasuble, DD - Rector of Woolton
Mr Gribsby - Solicitor of Parker and Gribsby, Solicitors, London
Moulton - Gardener
Merriman - Jack's butler
Lane - Algernon's manservant
Footman - at the Manor House
Lady Bracknell
Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax - Lady Bracknell's daughter
Cecily Cardew - Jack's ward
Miss Prism - Cecily's governess
Casting notes
Age: Casting will be age compatible in that the older characters will need to be physically older than their younger counterparts and vice versa.
Accents: Conventional (received/national) accents preferred for the posh parts and perhaps for the higher status servants too. Regional accent preferred for the gardener.
Gender: Casting to gender will be the working assumption but transgender casting may also be considered.
SDS membership: Cast members are expected to be members of SDS: membership details here
Auditions and rehearsals
Auditions: 2.30 pm, Sunday 15 January 2023 at the Jetty, Quay Lane, Sudbury. Pre-audition scripts are available for short term loan in the SDS box behind the Quay bar.
Rehearsals: Tuesdays and Thursdays 7.30 pm, Sundays 10.30 am at the Jetty, Quay Lane, Sudbury
Show week: 9th to 13th May 2023
For further information contact Peter Drew by email