10 - The Importance of Being Earnest

Summary

The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde's most famous and - posthumously - most successful play, was first produced by George Alexander at the St James's Theatre on 14 February 1895. London was enduring a prolonged and severe spell of cold weather: several theatres advertised their steam-heating among the attractions of their programme, and the first night of Wilde's comedy had been put off from 12 February because several of the women in the cast had bad colds. In addition to the habitual glamour of a first night at a fashionable theatre, the occasion was especially interesting because Wilde was in vogue. An Ideal Husband had been playing at the Haymarket Theatre since 3 January, and at the same theatre A Woman of No Importance had completed a successful run, having opened on 19 April 1893. On 20 February 1892 Lady Windermere's Fan had been the second play staged by Alexander's new management at the St James's Theatre, running until 26 July of that year.

Wilde's spectacular debut in the early 1880s had been followed by a period of less glamorous work as a reviewer, editor and jobbing author for journals and magazines. In 1888 he published The Happy Prince and Other Tales. In 1891 he had published four books, including The Picture of Dorian Gray and Intentions. Now, a decade after his appearance on the London literary scene, he was a successful West End dramatist and was beginning to seem a more substantial figure. A book-length lampoon, The Green Carnation, by imitating (perhaps reporting) his style of conversation, contributed to his renewed prominence in the literary and social gossip columns. To some readers it may also have suggested - or confirmed - the impression that there was a less positive side to Wilde's notoriety.