"The Importance of Being Earnest" in performance at BYU-Idaho

Students, faculty and the community are invited to attend the Brigham Young University-Idaho Drama Department's performance of "The Importance of Being Earnest" today through Saturday. The players took the stage last week after four weeks of practice and are continuing with their second run of "The Importance of Being Earnest" this week.

"The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People" is a three-act play written by Oscar Wilde. One of the challenges of putting a play together in four weeks was "dissecting the language, which is comedic and witty," Richard J. Clifford, director, said. "The Importance of Being Earnest lampoons courting and marriage practices. The characters in the play are very concerned with the rules of courting and marriage, much like the student culture at BYU-Idaho."

Algernon, played by student Jesse Thorson, and Jack are dashing bachelors who have a talent for bending the truth. Jack has invented a black-sheep brother, whose dreadful scrapes forever summon Jack to London. There his new love, the ravishing Gwendolyn, knows him by his assumed name: Ernest.

Algernon learns of Jack's beautiful ward, Cecily, played by student Tia Fordham, and also decides to assume the name of Ernest. When the two end up together in the country and their deceptions are revealed, they both must scramble to salvage their amours by learning the vital "Importance of Being Earnest."

Wilde called his play "exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy." This comedy of manners wittily lampoons the superficiality of so-called "polite society."

Tickets are sold out, but standby tickets are available, Clifford said. "We haven't had a problem with people not being able to attend," Clifford said. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $3 for BYU-Idaho students. Children under six years of and babies are not admitted.