Mauckingbird Theatre Company to Present THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, 8/7-25

Mauckingbird Theatre Company presents a gender-bent interpretation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Mauckingbird Artistic Director Peter Reynolds, August 7-25. This production marks the company's most ambitious production to date, and, keeping true to its acclaimed reputation, will deliver a "post-gay" performance that looks beyond gay pairings to the relationships and emotional connections of the story.

Predominately a language play, Mauckingbird's approach to Wilde's classic Comedy of Manners focuses on the subtleties of the text. "What is really intriguing to me is that this play is all about class and status," says Reynolds. "What works in this version is that it doesn't matter to Lady Bracknell if her son wants to marry a man or marry a woman, as long as their class and status are up to her standards."

Under his pseudonym Ernest, Jack Worthing (Chancellor Dean) falls in love with Gwendolyn Fairfax (Brent Knobloch) who unfortunately fixates on his assumed name. When his fellow playboy cousin Algernon Moncrief (James Ijames) discovers this falsehood, he adopts the name Ernest to woo Jack's ward Cecily Cardew (David Hutchison), who will only marry a man named Ernest. Mauckingbird's collision of class and status features an accomplished cast, including Nancy Boykinas the status-obsessed Lady Bracknell, Lindsay Mauck, Sarah Doherty, Mitchell Bloom and Darryl Gene Daughtry, Jr.

To fully realize the social status of the characters, Mauckingbird turned to Kickstarter to raise additional funds to support the vision of nationally recognized designer Marie Anne Chiment. "The play is about people of means-it really needs to look a certain way," said Reynolds. The multiple locales of the production will be created by scenic designer Andrew Laine, focusing on simple yet classy and elegant environments.

The Importance of Being Earnest runs August 7-25, 2013, at the Off-Broad Street Theater at First Baptist Church, located at 1636 Sansom St. in Philadelphia. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $15 for students and are available by calling the Mauckingbird Theatre Company box office at (215) 923-8909 or online at www.mauckingbird.org.

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