THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Begins This Month at Westport Country Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse will stage Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy The Importance of Being Earnest from October 28 through November 15, 2025. The sparkling satire of love, marriage, and high society is the second production in the Playhouse’s 2025–26 Season of six works running through July.

“At long last, The Importance of Being Earnest comes to the Playhouse stage, and we couldn’t be more excited,” said Mark Shanahan, Westport Country Playhouse artistic director. “Wilde’s comedic masterpiece is as clever, mischievous, and downright outrageous as ever, and this production—led by Melissa Rain Anderson’s expert hand alongside her extraordinary cast and design team—is exactly the kind of laugh-out-loud, sharp-witted fun we need right now.”

He added, “It’s a chance to revel in some of the most famous wordplay ever written, and delight in Wilde’s most iconic characters. The play remains as fresh, playful, and meaningful in 2025 as it was the day it first premiered, exposing human absurdities and contradictions with irresistible wit and wicked charm.”

In The Importance of Being Earnest, two eligible bachelors bend the truth in their pursuit of love, landing in a web of hilarious complications involving mistaken identities, secret engagements, a lost handbag, and one very formidable aunt. Wilde’s brilliant dialogue and outrageous humor make this timeless comedy a sharp skewering of class, courtship, and convention.

Cast and Creative Team

The cast includes Kristen Hahn as Cecily Cardew, Anthony Michael Martinez as Algernon Moncrieff, Jan Neuberger as Miss Prism, Christine Pedi as Lady Bracknell, Michael Raver as Jack Worthing, Triney Sandoval as Rev. Canon Chasuble, Mark Silence as Merriman/Lane, and Katy Tang as Gwendolyn Fairfax.

Melissa Rain Anderson directs. The creative team includes James J. Fenton (set design), Annie J. Le (costume design), Alexander Fetchko (lighting design), and John Gromada (sound design and original music). Frank Lombardi serves as stage manager, with Kelley Lynne Moncrief as assistant stage manager.

Performance Schedule

Performances will be held Tuesday at 7 p.m.; Wednesday at 2 and 7 p.m.; Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 3 p.m. (no Wednesday or Saturday matinees during preview week).

Special events include Taste of Tuesdays (October 28), Together at the Table (October 29), Pride Night (October 30), Opening Night (November 1), Sunday Symposium (November 2), Backstage Pass (November 5), Open Captions (November 9), and Thursday TalkBack (November 13).

Tickets and Sponsors

Single tickets start at $50 and are available at westportplayhouse.org. Discounts are available for students, seniors, educators, military, Indigenous peoples, professional playwrights, and groups, with pay-what-you-will and library pass options also offered. The production is appropriate for ages 12 and up.

Upcoming Season

Remaining productions in the 2025–26 season include A Sherlock Carol (December 13–21), Big Band Broadway (January 29–February 1), Primary Trust (April 14–May 2), and Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (July 14–August 1).