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The Odds of Being Earnest, which plays at the Connaught Studio on Friday 9 August, is a charming play about chance, the roulette wheel of life ... and what happens after the curtain falls on The Importance of Being Earnest.
In this witty and moving new play inspired by Oscar Wilde, Greg Mosse reveals a chance meeting between Lady Bracknell and Reverend Chasuble, 20 years later, on the terrace at Monte Carlo. It answers the questions: Was Bracknell right to prize money above love? Was Chasuble right to reject celibacy and marry Prism? Did Jack and Gwendolen stay in Shropshire? Was it likely that Algernon would make Cecily happy?
Over one scandalous summer holiday in Worthing in 1894, Oscar Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest, creating a set of convincing characters, caught up in a brilliant farce that he called 'a trivial comedy for serious people'. Because the characters are so convincing, we wonder what happens next, whether they will be happy and fulfilled or disappointed and heartbroken. We also want to know how their relationships evolve in the years to come - whether they stay friends, whether they still know one another at all.
Acclaimed Sussex writer Greg Mosse says: 'It's important to like the characters, even if you don't admire them, because if you don't like them you can never understand them. But there are plenty of clues in the original play that indicate that they are not all entirely unselfish people! In the years to come, which ones will be mellowed by time and their responsibilities - and which ones will become more feckless and self-centred? And what will be the repercussions on everyone else?'
The Odds of Being Earnest is Greg's second play for the Connaught Studio, following the success of Poisoned Beds with Lucy Flannery in November 2018. The show will be followed by a lively and entertaining post show discussion.
Greg Mosse's recent plays include Poisoned Beds (with Lucy Flannery), The Hawkhurst Gang, The Exchange, Number 60 to the Somme (with Carol Godsmark), Separate Ways (with John Gleadall), Daisy & Marvin Save the Day (with John Gleadall), Who Cares?, Self-Help, Gallery and a French short Il fut un temps. Greg is the leader of the Criterion New Writing script development program in London's West End. The Gleadall & Mosse adaptation of Alfred Noyes' ballad poem The Highwayman arrives in 2019.
Tickets for The Odds of Being Earnest are available from £10 and can be purchased from the Worthing Theatres box office on 01903 206 206 and online at worthingtheatres.co.uk.
