Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company to Present THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

Nottingham Playhouse launches their autumn season with Oscar Wilde's timeless and much loved masterpiece, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. Following his much acclaimed production of Noël Coward's PRIVATE LIVES which starred Janie Dee and Rupert Wickham, Giles Croft directs a cast which includes Joanna Brookes (The Physicists – Donmar) as Lady Bracknell, Sam Callis (Howard Davis' production of Hay Fever - Noël Coward Theatre, Game of Thrones Sky Atlantic) as Jack Worthing, Hywel Morgan (Tony Blair - A Walk On Part – Soho Theatre) as Algernon, Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi (Leyla Harding - Emmerdale ITV Rafta Rafta National Theatre) as Gwendolen and Anjli Mohindra (The Sarah Jane Adventures BBC1) as Cecily.

First staged on Valentines Day 1895, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is generally regarded as Wilde's finest comedy of manners and mores. The work explores the themes of concealment of identity, and the relationship between social class and the burdensome responsibilities that it brings.

On the surface a witty and frivolous farce THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST also serves as a searing satire on the shallow vanities and hypocrisies of the rigid class-based society in which Wilde lived and was to suffer at the hands of.

Giles Croft says "Having directed PRIVATE LIVES last year I'm very excited to be working on this great play by this other master of English language comedy. As so many people are now engaging in some form of online Bunburying, the idea of creating an imagined world of freedom from constraints feels as fresh as ever."

Nottingham Playhouse's production is complemented by the studio production of LADY BRACKNELL'S CONFINEMENT. Stephanie Sirr directs and John Elkington stars as Lady Augusta Bracknell (nee Fairfax) in Paul Doust's beautifully observed and darkly humorous exposé of the terrible consequences of a lifetime of deceit.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (31 August - 22 September) will be followed by DIARY OF A FOOTBALL NOBODY  by William Ivory (5 October –20 October), OF MICE AND MEN (2 – 17 November) and ROBIN HOOD AND THE BABES IN THE WOOD (30 November – 19 January).