Wednesday, June 10, 2015

On 'The Importance Of Being Earnest'

'The Importance of Being Earnest' is considered as the best written satire from Oscar Wilde and indeed it is. It was written in 1895 and I was told it is still get performed in British theaters everyday even after 120 years. (It is now one of my bucket list to watch live at London theater district).

Over century many many reviews have been written about its wittiness, and quotes from play are plastered all over the internet. But what striked me and kept me occupied throughout its read and watch was the mastery of Oscar Wilde over psychology of men and women and interplay of that psychology in genders' bonding.

On unrelated note: What an irony of life! He made fun of french people all his life but had to run away to Paris after his infamous trial, where he died in 1900.

I will advise you to keep script in your hand as you watch adaptation.

Full script here
Adaptation (1986) here (110 minutes)

2 comments:

bsc said...

Thanks for this one. Many associations but never read it. This was performed by Gov. College Dramatic club when I was a student probably 1951-52. The lead player was no other than Mr. Aslam Azher who was 5th year student and later he was English news reader from Lahore Pakistan radio and also recited English Translation of Qur'an-el-Majeed . There was poor understanding of English for me at that time
Also I think there was another performance of "She stoops to conquer" I rmemeber nothing but the names. but sure I will enjoy the script as I m too 'deaf' to understand. Did you get my Urdu write-up?

mystic-soul said...

Azhar Aslam was a one gem. Pakistani nation should always be thankful to him, for bringing and nurturing TV in Pakistan.