As the National Arts Centre brings Oscar Wilde’s comedy The Importance of Being Earnest to the stage this month, the legendary 19th-century Irish playwright will be coming full circle, in a sense.
Prior to his debut as a playwright, Wilde visited Ottawa in 1882 during a lecture tour.
Now, 132 years later, the highly anticipated performance opened on Oct. 21 with a pay-what-you-can performance and officially premieres today.
The show is running nightly until Nov. 8 and the NAC’s 700-seat theatre is expecting sell-out crowds.
“There will be nights when we’re sold out for sure,” says NAC spokesman Sean Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick turned to retired English professor Kevin O’Brien to learn more about Wilde’s Canadian visit for promotional purposes.
O’Brien, author of Oscar Wilde in Canada says people should see The Importance of Being Earnest because it is one of the funniest plays in the English language. Jillian Keiley, the NAC’s artistic director of English theatre, agrees.
“It’s one of those plays that you should see at least once in your lifetime, so it’s not an unusual play to produce. Our reasons for producing it are a bit unusual,” Keiley says.
Keiley is referring to the NAC’s atypical audition process that involves holding casting calls across the country to create a unique ensemble of actors, then choosing a play later to match the actors.
“This year’s group is particularly political and funny, so I think the play is an excellent match,” says Keiley.
“(It) has a great political bite and a real attack on the establishment, even though in a lot of ways it has become the establishment.”
The play is about two young gentlemen who use the same pseudonym “Ernest” but then fall in love with women using their on-the-sly name, leading to an entertaining mistaking of identities.
According to Keiley, the ensemble has three professional comedians, as well as actors who are unusually witty and politically attuned – similar to the show’s director, Ted Dykstra.
The play’s opening date was not without significance either, as October marked 160 years since Wilde’s birth.