The Importance of Being Earnest

This final play from the pen of Oscar Wilde is a stylish send-up of Victorian courtship and manners, complete with assumed names, mistaken lovers, and a lost handbag. Jack and Algernon are best friends, both wooing ladies who think their names are Earnest, "that name which inspires absolute confidence". Wilde's effervescent wit, scathing social satire, and high farce make this one of the most cherished plays in the English language.

An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance featuring:

James Marsters as Jack

Charles Busch as Lady Bracknell

Emily Bergl as Cecily

Neil Dickson as Lane and Merriman

Jill Gascoine as Miss Prism

Christopher Neame as Chasuble

Matthew Wolf as Algernon

Sarah Zimmerman as Gwendolen

Interview with Michael Hackett—the Department Chair of Theater at UCLA. In addition to his extensive directorial work for L.A. Theatre Works—which includes plays by Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams, and Noël Coward.

Directed by Michael Hackett. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles in June of 2009.