THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

February 2023

Directed by Peter Kristoph

Play by Oscar Wilde

WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE SHOW!

And if you missed it (or want to rewatch it):

Watch Act 1

Watch Acts 2–3

A TRIVIAL COMEDY FOR SERIOUS PEOPLE…

The Middlebury Community Players presented their February 2023 production of Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest.

Set in late 19th-century England, the play pokes fun at the pretentiousness of the upper-class Victorian society that forces Jack and Algernon to create fictitious lives to avoid the social repercussions of their seemingly less attractive lifestyles. But their clever tricks become increasingly difficult to maintain when they insist on proposing marriage to the women they love.

Director Peter Kristoph, who recently directed Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for MCP’s Company Be*, assembled a talented cast of both veteran and newcomer area actors, featuring Asa Baker-Rouse as Algernon Moncrieff, Kevin Commins as Lady Bracknell, Adam Gould as Jack Worthing, David Harcourt as Lane, Tom McElhaney as Dr. Chasuble, Kimberlee Moyer as Miss Prism, Olivia Olson as Cecily Cardew, Michael Purdue as Merriman, and Jillian Torres as Gwendolen Fairfax.

The show was stage managed by Dora Greven and co-produced by Kristen Ginsburg and Jane Kimble.

*Company Be is a branch of the Middlebury Community Players dedicated to producing small, intimate, “black box theater” plays. We encourage anyone with a play they’d like to direct or produce to get in touch with us at info@middleburycommunityplayers.org.