“The Importance of Being Earnest” showcases late 19th century elegance, satire and wit on the Vanity Theater stage this weekend.
One of Oscar Wilde’s most enduring works of art, Earnest is a comedy of errors and delights in which intelligence is used to avoid and later embrace commitments in late 1895. Famous for its humor that still thrills audiences more than 100 years later, Earnest won’t leave audiences confused so much as roaring with laughter.
Earnest is Rolf Samuelsen’s return to the Vanity as the director, and a return to normalcy as the Sugar Creek Players have resumed a regular season for the first time since COVID. Frozen Jr., Earnest, Big Fish, Mousetrap and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are part of the Vanity’s first full season since 2019, and Earnest hopes to follow in Frozen’s footsteps with big audiences this weekend.
Samuelsen has participated with the Sugar Creek Players since the early 2000s, and all of his family has contributed to the stage.
“The first time I saw this play, I wanted to be involved in a production of Earnest,” he said. “Ernest is one of the funniest plays I have ever seen, and I enjoy the irony of the language even after seeing it several times and now working on it for two months.”
When asked why the Vanity wanted to perform Earnest, Katie Melvin, president of the Sugar Creek Players, was quick to reply that, “(Earnest) is a classic. The comedy, the intelligence and the writing is still as fantastic and timely today as it was when it was written.”
The Importance of Being Earnest runs from today through Sunday. Tickets are available online at www.sugarcreekplayers.org, as well as at the door, and they are priced at $15 for adults and $10 for students. Performance times are 7 p.m. today and Saturday with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Sunday’s matinee performance will begin at 2:30 p.m. with doors opening at 2 p.m.
