The Importance Of Being Earnest (Wendy Hiller) part 5 of 11

a near duplicate upload of this video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL5SaEuTNfw

"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

Ann Thornton ... Cecily Cardew
Rosamund Greenwood ... Miss Prism
Henry Moxon ... Rev Canon Chasuble
Sydney Arnold ... Merriman
Gary Bond ... John Worthing, JP
Jeremy Clyde ... Algernon Moncrieff

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.

On the opening night of this play the actor who created the role of Merriman recalled "My first speech, 'Mr. Ernest Worthing hs just driven over from the station. He has brought his luggage with him,' was recieved with the loudest and most sustained laugh that I have ever experienced, culminating in a round of applause; and as I came off Wilde said to me, 'I'm glad you got that laugh. It shows they have followed the plot.'"

This tightly constructed and intricately crafted play is of the sort that some commentators dismissively call a "pièce bien faite", but Wilde's doesn't suffer from any obvious or contrived formula. He plotting in very logical and convincing, but much of it moves with surprises--an example of such is the one described above, utilizing a very minor character to move the plot along, thus artfully concealing the necessary plot movement with a suprise and laugh.

The actor (and manager) Geroge Alexander first presented this play with a one act curtain raiser by Langdon Mitchell. Wilde had submitted a four-act play, and was told to cut it down to three acts. He complied and most of the cutting involved folding the second and third acts into one--the second act as exits today.

Wilde's son Vyvyan reconstructed the original 4-act version, (it survived in a German translation and from copies of Wilde's early drafts).

Some excellent stuff got cut! here's a bit:

Chausuble:

Reading Political Economy, Cecily? It is wonderful how girls are educated now-a-days. I suppose you know all about the relations between Capital and Labour. I wish I did. I am compelled, like most of my brother clergy, to treat scientific subjects from the point of view of sentiment. But that is more impressive I think. Accurate knowledge is out of place in a pulpit. It is secular.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

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

[aFriendtoOtters]

Oh, come on. I was just getting into it. Need part 5, please.

[ShakespeareAndMore]

I can always view it, never had a problem. It's a mystery why so many others can't.

In any case, I've uploaded a near duplicate of part 5. Search YouTube for "The Importance Of Being Earnest (W. Hiller) part 5 of 11"

[ornleifs]

" The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means. "

Ha Ha - so brilliant - Wilde was a Genius.

[Mrs912009Sarah]

haha "I would hang upon her lips...I mean metaphorically"

[BronteIsCool]

@penguinnavigatoranna

I'm playing Cecily too! :)

[penguinnavigatoranna]

I'm playing Cecily in my production of this, and I'm finding it an absolutely magnificent play :)

[SuperDavid50]

Algernon: I feel better already.

Cecily: You're looking a little worse.

lolll so funny

[AnonymoussourceL0L]

Cecily sounds too old to be just 18... i prefer the Cecily I performed with on the stage :D

[friulano]

Wonderful videos for a masterpiece of humour

[Balancement]

@Ceminon ~ As Oscar Wilde said, "It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious." He must have had you in mind for the latter.

[11strelokfan1000]

I feel SO proud that I get the role of Chasuble in my class play :D

[MiniJumboPancakes]

Hahaha, oooh, the moment I saw Jack appear dressed in black, I knew it was going down. :D

Also, I can't understand why there are so many negative comments about this play. I think it's excellent, well performed, funny, and not boring at all. To each their own, I guess.

[Ceminon]

Someone should've squeezed the life out of Oscar Wilde before he wrote this abomination.

[bo0o87]

Wilde was gay and he was married to a women at that time ,he lived a double life with his marraige and his gay boyfriend . that's why i think wrote about living a double life