50 Fun Facts About The Importance of Being Earnest

What is the subtitle of The Importance of Being Earnest?

A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. The joke runs to the final curtain, where Lady Bracknell scolds Jack for showing signs of triviality just as he declares himself earnest at last.

The Importance of Being Earnest opened in London in 1895 on which day of the calendar?

Valentine's Day. The comedy has a 14 February of its own: Cecily announces that she accepted 'Ernest' on that very date, months before she had even met him.

Which Wilde play opened weeks before The Importance of Being Earnest, the last of his four drawing-room comedies?

An Ideal Husband. It opened that January, so Wilde had two hits playing in the West End at once when he was arrested in April, at the very height of his success.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell says losing one parent is a misfortune, but losing both looks like what?

Carelessness. The line caps her interview of Jack as a suitor, conducted notebook in hand against a list of eligible young men she shares with the Duchess of Bolton.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, what is the name of Algernon's invented invalid friend?

Bunbury. Whenever a dull invitation looms, Algernon announces that his friend has had a relapse and must be visited at once, a dodge he proudly calls Bunburying.

The cigarette case that exposes Jack's double life is inscribed with love from whom?

Little Cecily, to her dear uncle. Jack first insists Cecily is a small aunt in Tunbridge Wells, until Algernon asks why any aunt would call him uncle.

Where was Jack found as a baby, according to his own account?

In a handbag at Victoria Station. Jack adds hopefully that it was the Brighton line, and Lady Bracknell replies that the line is immaterial.

What does Lady Bracknell find wrong with Jack's town house at 149 Belgrave Square?

It is on the unfashionable side. When Jack asks whether she means the fashion or the side, she answers sternly: both, if necessary.

According to Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest, what is every woman's tragedy?

Becoming like her mother. Algernon adds that no man becomes like his, which is his tragedy, and Jack, dreading a future Lady Bracknell, asks only whether that was clever.

What is the name of Cecily's governess?

Miss Prism. Lady Bracknell recognises her as the nursemaid who left the family's house with a baby in a pram 28 years earlier and never came back.

Who is the rector at Woolton whom Algernon asks to rechristen him?

Dr Chasuble. Jack books a christening with him for the same afternoon, so the rector ends up expecting two grown men who both want to be renamed Ernest.

How does Jack claim his brother Ernest died when he arrives in mourning in Act II?

Of a severe chill in Paris. Jack's first idea was apoplexy, but Algernon warned him that it runs in families, so a chill it was.

What did the governess put in the perambulator instead of the baby?

The manuscript of her novel. Police found the pram at midnight in a remote corner of Bayswater, holding a three-volume work that Lady Bracknell calls revoltingly sentimental.

Jack turns out to be the son of which relative of Lady Bracknell?

Her late sister, Mrs Moncrieff. Jack, who has spent three acts inventing a brother, discovers that his friend Algernon really is one.

Where does Jack look up his father's name to discover he really was christened Ernest?

The Army Lists. His father was a general, so Jack tears the volumes from the bookcase and finds the entry: Christian names, Ernest John.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, which instrument does Algernon say he plays with wonderful expression rather than accuracy?

The piano. He has been playing in the next room as the play opens, and when he asks whether Lane heard, the manservant replies that he didn't think it polite to listen.

In which Sussex seaside town was Wilde staying in 1894 when he wrote The Importance of Being Earnest?

Worthing. Wilde gave the resort's name to his hero: the old gentleman who found baby Jack happened to have a first-class ticket for it in his pocket.

Which 1877 W. S. Gilbert farce is widely seen as the biggest influence on The Importance of Being Earnest?

Engaged. Gilbert insisted its absurd lovers be played with perfect earnestness and gravity throughout, and Wilde's comedy calls for the same straight face.

Which character was cut when The Importance of Being Earnest was trimmed from four acts to three?

Mr Gribsby, a solicitor. He arrives at the country house with a writ against 'Ernest' for unpaid debts, a scene dropped before the first night that the 2002 film put back in.

Which actor-manager staged the 1895 premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest and played Jack himself?

George Alexander. He needed a new play in a hurry after a flop at his St James's Theatre, and persuaded Wilde to cut the comedy from four acts to three.

What did the Marquess of Queensberry plan to throw at Wilde on the opening night?

A bouquet of rotten vegetables. Wilde was tipped off and had the Marquess barred from the theatre, but within four months their feud had put Wilde in prison.

Where was Wilde on holiday during most of the rehearsals for The Importance of Being Earnest?

Algeria. He had gone there with Lord Alfred Douglas, and in Algiers the pair ran into the young French writer André Gide.

Which flower did Oscar Wilde make his trademark buttonhole, giving an 1894 satirical novel about him its title?

A green carnation. Robert Hichens's novel The Green Carnation mocked Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas so recognisably that it was withdrawn when the scandal broke in 1895.

What did the manager strike from the playbills in 1895 to try to keep The Importance of Being Earnest running?

Oscar Wilde's name. The ploy failed: takings collapsed after the author's arrest that April, and the hit came off within weeks.

Which playwright and critic called The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's "first really heartless play"?

George Bernard Shaw. He never relented: long after Wilde's death he was still calling it heartless, and admitted that Wilde had been disgusted with him for saying so.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Algernon says only relatives or creditors ring the doorbell in the manner of which composer?

Wagner. The 'Wagnerian' ring announces Lady Bracknell, and Algernon at once plots to get her out of the room for ten minutes so that Jack can propose.

Which Tom Stoppard comedy is built around a wartime Zurich production of The Importance of Being Earnest?

Travesties. Its hero Henry Carr was a real British consular official who played Algernon for James Joyce's company in Zurich, quarrelled with him and was mocked in Ulysses.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Gwendolen says the name Ernest inspires what in her?

Absolute confidence. Cecily later says almost the same of the name, which is awkward for two suitors who are really called Jack and Algernon.

In which language does the Ernest/earnest pun translate most simply?

German. Ernst is both an everyday man's name and the adjective for serious, so a common German title, Ernst sein ist alles, keeps the joke intact.

Under what title is The Importance of Being Earnest most often performed in French?

L'Importance d'être Constant. Ernest is no pun in French, so translators look for a first name that is also a virtue, and settle most often on Constant, meaning steadfast.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, why is Lady Bracknell glad to hear that Jack smokes?

A man should have an occupation. She is just as pleased to hear that Jack knows nothing, since she disapproves of anything that tampers with natural ignorance.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, which treat ordered specially for Lady Bracknell does Algernon eat before she arrives?

Cucumber sandwiches. Faced with an empty plate, his manservant Lane covers for him, swearing there were no cucumbers in the market that morning, not even for ready money.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, where does Algernon secretly jot down Jack's country address?

On his shirt-cuff. He overhears Jack giving the address to Gwendolen, then reaches for the train timetable, already planning to turn up there as the wicked brother.

Which actress's drawn-out delivery of one Lady Bracknell line became synonymous with The Importance of Being Earnest?

Edith Evans. She first played the part in 1939 and declined the Broadway run in 1947, yet agreed to preserve her performance in the 1952 film.

Who played Jack in Anthony Asquith's 1952 film of The Importance of Being Earnest?

Michael Redgrave. Asquith made no secret of the play's stage origins: the film opens with a theatre curtain rising and a playgoer lifting her opera glasses to watch.

Who played Jack opposite Rupert Everett's Algernon in the 2002 film of The Importance of Being Earnest?

Colin Firth. Unlike the stage-bound 1952 film, this version takes every chance to get out and about, from grand London locations to the countryside.

Which American actress played Cecily in the 2002 film of The Importance of Being Earnest?

Reese Witherspoon. She put on an English accent for the part, while her rival Gwendolen went to Frances O'Connor, who was born in England but raised in Australia.

Which Australian actor played Lady Bracknell for the Melbourne Theatre Company in 2011?

Geoffrey Rush. He took the part for director Simon Phillips's farewell production at the company, towering over the cast in an upswept coiffure and a feathered hat.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, what does Cecily spitefully serve Gwendolen, who has asked for bread and butter?

A slice of cake. Gwendolen has just declared cake unfashionable and sugar out of style, so Cecily cuts her a very large slice and drops four lumps in her tea.

Who played Lady Bracknell when the National Theatre's The Importance of Being Earnest moved to the West End in 2025?

Stephen Fry. Nearly thirty years after playing the author himself in the film Wilde, he took over the part from Sharon D. Clarke for the West End run.

In 1995 Mark Lawson called The Importance of Being Earnest the second most known and quoted play in English after which one?

Hamlet. Lawson's proof was how freely its lines are borrowed: that very week, he noted, pundits in London and Washington had both been recycling Lady Bracknell.

What sentence did Wilde receive after his conviction for gross indecency in May 1895?

Two years' hard labour. It was the heaviest sentence the law allowed, and on the day of his release in 1897 he sailed for France, never to return or write another play.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, what does Gwendolen never travel without, for something sensational to read on the train?

Her diary. She produces it to prove that 'Ernest' proposed to her first, just after Cecily has shown her own entry recording his proposal ten minutes earlier.

In Gerald Barry's 2011 opera of The Importance of Being Earnest, which voice type sings Lady Bracknell?

A bass. Barry's score is just as unruly elsewhere: Gwendolen and Cecily trade insults through megaphones while a stack of dinner plates is smashed in rhythm.

Which Henry James play flopped at the St James's in 1895, making room for Wilde's comedy?

Guy Domville. James was jeered when he took his bow on the first night, a humiliation that sent him back to writing fiction.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, what suddenly makes Lady Bracknell approve of Cecily as a wife for Algernon?

Her large fortune. On hearing that Cecily has £130,000 in the Funds, Lady Bracknell decides she is a most attractive young lady, now that she looks at her.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, what does Algernon say "is rarely pure and never simple"?

Truth. Jack has just owned up to inventing a younger brother and called that the whole truth, pure and simple; Algernon adds that modern life would be very tedious if it were either.

In which English county does The Importance of Being Earnest place Woolton, Jack's country home?

Hertfordshire. Finding two couples betrothed in one afternoon, Lady Bracknell wonders whether something peculiarly exciting is in the air of this part of the county.

Mabel Terry-Lewis played Lady Bracknell opposite John Gielgud's Jack in 1930; how was she related to him?

His aunt. Gielgud recalled that she played the part beautifully without ever seeing the joke, asking him why the audience was laughing at lines that weren't funny to her.

Who played Lady Bracknell in Peter Hall's 1982 National Theatre production of The Importance of Being Earnest?

Judi Dench. Her co-stars Martin Jarvis and Nigel Havers played the two young bachelors, and returned to the same roles 32 years later in an age-blind West End revival.