Jack is in love with Gwendolen. His friend Algy is in love with Cecily. Both women want to marry a man named Ernest, so the men have both pretended to their fiancées that they are called Ernest. Such deception in matters of the heart is surely ill-advised
There have been many adaptations of Oscar Wilde's classic comic play of high society manners, but this is the timeless definitive one. It probably works best because it doesn't really try to be a movie, it's just a staging of the play with crisp early colour photography and very little fuss. All of the principal cast are pretty much perfect in these roles; Redgrave's mannered, elegant, raised-eyebrow pomposity is irresistible. Dennison has a whale of a time as the caddish Algy. Tutin and Greenwood are as fine a pair of English stuffed prunes as ever took high tea, and the always reliable Rutherford is a scream as the guilt-strewn Miss Prism. Undoubtedly top of the heap though is Evans as the formidable Lady Augusta Bracknell. Evans had a whole career worth of stage experience behind her, and makes Wilde's much-celebrated battleaxe hilarious, terrifying, slightly sozzled and unforgettable. She has so many great lines it's folly to pick one, but I think my favourite is, "Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.". The terrific cast and simple approach combine to deliver Wilde's sublime writing to the hilt. What I love so much about this play is that not a line or word is wasted; everything is funny, nuanced, part of the story, part of the comic absurdity. I generally enjoy plays, but many could do with a lot of pruning (try getting through Act IV of King Lear if you don't believe me). This on the other hand is as close to perfection as comic writing gets, as if Wilde had somehow worked out mathematically what constituted the most perfectly-formed funny stageplay. Okay it's maybe not for all tastes, but as a brilliantly observed little dig at love and aristocratic foibles it's an absolute gem. My favourite observation on Wilde is by Dorothy Parker, who said, "If with the literate I am / Impelled to try an epigram / I never seek to take the credit / We all assume that Oscar said it.". Draw the shades, make yourself a nice cuppa, and enjoy this comic delight.
There have been many adaptations of Oscar Wilde's classic comic play of high society manners, but this is the timeless definitive one. It probably works best because it doesn't really try to be a movie, it's just a staging of the play with crisp early colour photography and very little fuss. All of the principal cast are pretty much perfect in these roles; Redgrave's mannered, elegant, raised-eyebrow pomposity is irresistible. Dennison has a whale of a time as the caddish Algy. Tutin and Greenwood are as fine a pair of English stuffed prunes as ever took high tea, and the always reliable Rutherford is a scream as the guilt-strewn Miss Prism. Undoubtedly top of the heap though is Evans as the formidable Lady Augusta Bracknell. Evans had a whole career worth of stage experience behind her, and makes Wilde's much-celebrated battleaxe hilarious, terrifying, slightly sozzled and unforgettable. She has so many great lines it's folly to pick one, but I think my favourite is, "Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.". The terrific cast and simple approach combine to deliver Wilde's sublime writing to the hilt. What I love so much about this play is that not a line or word is wasted; everything is funny, nuanced, part of the story, part of the comic absurdity. I generally enjoy plays, but many could do with a lot of pruning (try getting through Act IV of King Lear if you don't believe me). This on the other hand is as close to perfection as comic writing gets, as if Wilde had somehow worked out mathematically what constituted the most perfectly-formed funny stageplay. Okay it's maybe not for all tastes, but as a brilliantly observed little dig at love and aristocratic foibles it's an absolute gem. My favourite observation on Wilde is by Dorothy Parker, who said, "If with the literate I am / Impelled to try an epigram / I never seek to take the credit / We all assume that Oscar said it.". Draw the shades, make yourself a nice cuppa, and enjoy this comic delight.