Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, is forcibly rewired for one table, two actors, and three hats, in a gender-flexing assault on Victorian family values.  Cutting through swathes of epigrams in cut-glass accents and half-cut song-and-dance routines, this Performance Research Group staging is both totally Wilde, and in deadly Earnest.

Wilde’s satire on Victorian values was first published in 1895 and its high farce and comedy were welcomed by reviewers, although many remarked on the lack of a social message. Its first run came to an abrupt end, however, as revelations about Wilde’s double life as a homosexual eventually led to him being imprisoned. Today, The Importance of Being Earnest stands as Wilde’s most popular and enduring play.

Performance Research Group is returning to Blenheim for the fourth year following its hugely successful productions of Shakespeare for Breakfast (2014), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013), and Macbeth (2012). It is a practitioners’ collective of theatre professionals and actors in training, operating under the auspices of the Guildford School of Acting (GSA).  The production is directed by PRG’s artistic director Jaq Bessell.

The performance last 90 minutes with no interval.