THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Will Come to the Grand Theatre This March

An all-new, London Made production of Oscar Wilde's classic romp of friendship and falsehoods will take to the Spriet Stage at the Grand Theatre, running from March 24 through April 12. Director Alistair Newton helms a vivid, design-forward staging of The Importance of Being Earnest with an attention to the aesthetic that rivals perhaps even that of Wilde himself.

“The Importance is rife with biting wit and social commentary that remain relevant today, delighting audiences around the world for more than one hundred years now. If we were going to bring this play back to our audiences at the Grand, we wanted to bring a bold idea to it,” shares Rachel Peake, Artistic Director of the Grand Theatre. “Enter Director Alistair Newton.”

Newton has penned new text, “On the Language of Fans”, and has introduced a new role – Lady Stella Clinton. Also known as Ernest Boulton, Lady Stella was a 19th-century queer trailblazer who famously fainted when she was found innocent in the trial of the century, after being arrested for wearing women's clothes. In Newton's The Importance, Lady Stella will delight audiences with a pair of musical numbers by Gilbert and Sullivan that have been added to the show.

Billy Lake as Lady Stella Clinton. Costume design by Judith Bowden. Photography by Mai Tilson.

Billy Lake (he/they) makes his Grand Theatre debut as Lady Stella Clinton, and joins a familiar cast of characters (and audience favourites) including Deena Aziz as Miss Prism, James Daly as Algernon Moncrieff, Julien Galipeau as John Worthing, Kaylee Harwood as Gwendolen Fairfax, Claire Jullien as Lady Bracknell, Ben Sanders as Rev. Canon Chasuble  / Lane, and Mirabella Sundar Singh as Cecily Cardew.

“Productions of The Importance are usually accompanied by associations –heavy curtains, fussy furniture, lace doilies – which are drawn more from our culture's received ideas about the late Victorian period than from an aesthetic universe whose dramatic language included melodrama and the transgressive queerness of the music hall,” considers Newton. “In fact, Wilde's plays have the potential to illuminate the 19th Century in ways that challenge many of these preconceptions, full as they are of secret codes, hidden symbols, double entendres, and perhaps above all, delightful paradoxes.”

Featuring opulent, high-fashion wardrobe, the production will be stunningly colour-blocked with each act unveiling itself as vividly monochromatic. “The green of Act One comes from the code of the dyed carnation flowers which Wilde and his set wore on their lapels to identify one another,” reveals Newton. “The yellow of Act Two is the same hue as the covers of ‘decadent' French literature of the period, as well as of the Yellow Book, a publication of the Aesthetic Movement. The red of Act Three is taken from Wilde's vermillion office at his family's London home on Tite Street; a blast of shocking, subversive colour amidst an otherwise tastefully minimal, and mostly white, interior.”

Newton's bold vision becomes reality through the show's creative team which includes Stephen Ingram as Music Director, George Absi as Choreographer, Michelle Tracey as Set Designer, Judith Bowden as Costume Designer, Siobhán Sleath as Lighting Designer, Olivia Wheeler as Sound Designer, Phyllis Cohen as Dialect Coach, Michael Hart as Stage Manager, Jordan Guetter as Assistant Stage Manager, and Tsz Ting Lam as Apprentice Stage Manager.

With the show's innovative design, spectacular wit, and the addition of song, dance, and drag, this London Made production of The Importance of Being Earnest highlights the underlying queer code that exists throughout Wilde's masterpiece.  

The Importance of Being Earnest plays on the Spriet Stage at the Grand Theatre from March 24 to April 12. Single tickets range from $25 to $97 and are available in-person at the Box Office, by phone at 519.672.8800, and online.