Then, why not play with this subtitle and reverse it? What if, in fact, it were a serious play for trivial people? In that case it would mean that Wilde chose to tackle serious subjects but that he did not believe his public would understand his attempts at turning traditions and preconceived notions upside down.
One can also wonder whether he really cares about those notions. Is he really aware of his own discourse on gender? If he is, he does not seem to want to push it too far. Is it because he is afraid of losing his readership and audience? In fact, we do not really know the intentions of Oscar Wilde, except perhaps that, and to paraphrase Jack in the play, when he is in town he amuses himself p. It is delightful to see, it sends wave after wave of laughter.
What can a poor critic do with a play which raises no principle, whether of art or morals, creates its own canons and conventions, and is nothing but an absolutely wilful expression of irrepressibly witty personality.
More reviews of that time would be required in order to determine if other critics were also ill-at-ease when they saw the play. On the whole we know that there were positive reviews and Earnest could have expected an extended run in the St James Theatre followed by a popular tour in the provinces. However, only a few weeks after its opening, Oscar Wilde was involved in the scandal that led him to prison. The audience that had laughed so much during the performances shunned his company and work.
Equally, it would have been interesting to have interviews of members of the audience to find out why they had enjoyed the play. Was it because they had chosen to overlook the questionings of the play or simply because they had completely misunderstood the undertones in the first place? Later, why did they really turn away from Oscar Wilde? Was it because they were really shocked by his homosexuality or just to conform to the new trend that was to despise him?
Just as Gwendolen says to Cecily in Act II that cake is rarely seen in the best houses nowadays, Oscar Wilde was rarely talked about in the best houses after the trial that he lost.
This way of viewing things seems to suggest that the gender order may be disrupted and changed, and Oscar Wilde was certainly one of the first ones to do so in his life and by using theatre as a means of expression for his questioning and mockery of both the social and gender orders.
When the public saw the actors and actresses on stage they underwent an identification process because they lived in the same flats, wore the same clothes and spoke the same apparent language.
The Victorian audience then laughed at itself. Or did it? The scenes would have seemed so exaggerated that they could not possibly have recognized themselves and have taken the play seriously. They actually laughed at social and sexual relationships that, as far as they were concerned, could not exist. Exaggeration and nonsensical dialogues probably helped Wilde get away with the more troubling questions he raised.
For 3 years I have studied extracts of the play with my second-year French Modern Literature students who love it because it is witty, subversive and questions gender roles. The theatre manager of the St.
James where Earnest opened, George Alexander, asked Wilde to reduce his original four-act play to three acts, like more conventional farces. Wilde accomplished this by omitting the Gribsby episode and merging two acts into one.
In doing so, he maneuvered his play for greater commercial and literary response. Marriage plots and social comedy were also typical of s literature. Jane Austen and George Eliot were both novelists who used the idea of marriage as the basis for their conflicts. Many of the comedies of the stage were social comedies, plays set in contemporary times discussing current problems.
The white, Anglo-Saxon, male society of the time provided many targets of complacency and aristocratic attitudes that playwrights such as Wilde could attack. Earnest came at a time in Wilde's life when he was feeling the pressure of supporting his family and mother, and precariously balancing homosexual affairs — especially with Lord Alfred Douglas.
James Theatre on February 14, On this particular evening, to honor Wilde's aestheticism, the women wore lily corsages, and the young men wore lilies of the valley in their lapels. Themes Motifs Symbols. Quotes Find the quotes you need to support your essay, or refresh your memory of the book by reading these key quotes. Important Quotes Explained. Quick Quizzes Test your knowledge of The Importance of Being Earnest with quizzes about every section, major characters, themes, symbols, and more.
Okay, so this summer is my 20th anniversary directing for the Bench Theatre. In that time I've directed 16 main house shows and a scattering of one act plays for both Supernova and our entries to the Totton Festival of Drama. Directing was something I never really set out to do. It looked like an awful lot of hard work and you didn't even get to enjoy the bow at the end! Why would you want to do that??? However, the more plays I acted in I found myself thinking of other directors 'Oooh no, I wouldn't have done it like tha' and 'Oooh no, I wouldn't have cast them as that' and more frequently 'Why doesn't anyone pitch a play like insert play name here as we would do that brilliantly'.
And so I came to the reluctant conclusion that I would have to pitch 'that' play and then I would be able to 'cast' it how I wanted and 'do' it how I believed it should be.
If anyone has ever read one of my director's rambles before, you know that I frequently retire from directing and swear I'm never going to do another one. Because: 1 It is a lot of hard work and, 2 you really don't get to enjoy the bow at the end!! But what you do get, is to work with a wonderful, endlessly talented and always inspiring cast who delight you at every turn. A hard-working back stage crew who work their socks off to make sure that everything looks and sounds great and is dressed amazingly And all of that just….
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