The Importance Of Being Earnest (Wendy Hiller) part 7 of 11

"The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde

link below to playlist of all 11 parts of this "The Importance Of Being Earnest":
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=749CF199F94D9B7F

Jeremy Clyde ... Algernon Moncrieff
Ann Thornton ... Cecily Cardew
Gabrielle Drake ... Gwendolen Fairfax

Directed by Michael Attenborough (stage) and Michael Lindsay-Hogg (TV)

This production was broadcasted on US television in 1985 (when I recorded in on this VHS tape), and that is the date given in several references, but it was originally produced in 1981.

George Bernard Shaw reviewed this play after it opened in 1895. It was the only one of Wilde's plays he did not like. Even in his late age, in the 1950s (he was only 7 years younger than Wilde) and well after the play was established as a classic of excellence, he position remained unchanged.

(from 1895) "I cannot say that I greatly cared for The Importance Of Being Earnest. It amused me, of course; but unless comedy touches me as well as amuses me, it leaves me with a sense of having wasted my evening."

Wilde liked the early (and unsuccessful) plays of Bernard Shaw. Wilde wrote to Shaw:

"I have read it ['Widowers' Houses'] twice with the keenest interest. I like your superb confidence in the dramatic value of the mere facts of life. I admire the horrible flesh and blood of your creatures, and your preface is a masterpiece--a real masterpiece of trenchant writing and caustic with and dramatic instinct."

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Oscar-Wilde
• Ann-Thornton
• Gary-Bond
• Jeremy-Clyde
• Gabrielle-Drake
• play
• theatre
• comedy
• wit
• performing
• arts

[goodluckpeace44]

"He has never written a single book, so you can imagine how much he knows."

Ha ha ha *hoot*

[ornleifs]

Cecily is so Funny and so Cute, and the oh so polite aggression between Cecily and Gwendolen is hillarious.

[ZakkCollins]

@goodluckpeace44 the character's name is spelt Ernest, as 'earnest' is not a proper name

[liam196501]

Gabrielle Drake is so naturally elegant that the period costume suits her perfectly, even more so than Helena Bonham Carter.

[Earlo45]

what so Ceclily has being writing Algy's letters and her letters,...in other words she was talking to herself????

[Souperfro]

haha

[dkhgr]

omg - this was so helpful for my english assignment!!!

[opaulo30]

can i please kll the. thinking of contacting a.c. beyond the grave so i can remurder or re kill since i never did murder o.w.

[goodluckpeace44]

it is exactly what the book says, almost everyline in it. but i remembe not the line "blue eyes" because Jack's actor does not have blue eyes,

[goodluckpeace44]

realy? she is a man? I always thought that women with a pretty face but less exegerated thighs and breasts were more decent looking and educated looking, and women with big things are quite like hoes. I have not felt she was a man though. Its ok if she is a man with a vagina and no chest hair or facial hair.