By Oscar Wilde
Produced by The New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich
September / October 2010
Oscar Wilde’s hilarious and timeless comedy classic The Importance of Being Earnest will be presented at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich (Friday 17 September to Saturday 9 October). The play is a production of the New Wolsey and the press night is on Tuesday 21 September at 7pm.
Ellie Jones directs The Importance of Being Earnest with design by Dawn Allsopp, lighting design by Tim Mascall, sound design by Thor McIntyre-Burnie and casting by Lucy Jenkins CDG and Sooki Mc Shane CDG.
The cast of The Importance of Being Earnest is: Ishia Bennison as Miss Prism; Tom Davey as John Worthing, J.P; Esther Ruth Elliott as Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax; Nelly Harker as Cecily Cardew; Mark Edel-Hunt as Algernon Moncrieff; Lizzy McInnerny as Lady Bracknell; Michael Fenton Stevens as Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D; and Matthew Woodyatt as Merriman/Lane.
Set in late Victorian England in 1895, town and country collide in this witty romantic comedy as false identities are assumed, double lives exposed and confusion leads to confusion. Can the dreaded Lady Bracknell uncover all? Will the mystery of Jack’s parentage be revealed? And most importantly will there be cucumber sandwiches for tea?
The fabulous cast of eight includes Tom Davey as Jack, seen most recently as Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the RSC, Ishia Bennison as Miss Prism, well known as Denise Skidmore in At Home With The Braithwaites and Michael Fenton-Stevens as Dr Chasuble who as well as having had a number one record with Spitting Image’s The Chicken song also recently played Peter Bailey at The New Wolsey’s production of It’s A Wonderful Life.
Ellie Jones directed both The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet at the New Wolsey Theatre and is delighted to be back tackling The Importance of Being Earnest this season. “Expect butlers, buttonholes and a very famous black handbag in this revival of Oscar Wilde’s sharp-witted satire of Victorian society and find out for yourself the vital importance of being earnest” (Ellie Jones).
Ellie’s recent credits include A Christmas Carol (Southwark Playhouse); The Erpingham Camp (Brighton Pier) and New World Order (Brighton Town Hall) both site-specific pieces for Brighton Festival; God of Carnage (As Associate Director on its National Tour); Daisy Pulls It Off at the Sherman Theatre and a revival at Southwark Playhouse of her very successful Sheffield Theatres’ production of How to Disappear Completely And Never Be Found.
Other credits include: The Elephant Man (national tour), Macbeth, Birdsong (RSC); Once We Were Mothers, Strange Orchestra, Macbeth, Something Beginning With, The Merchant of Venice, A Man of Letters, Amaretti Angels (all Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond); Woman in Black (Madenat Theatre, Dubai); As You Like It (Arundel Festival); Pandemonium - A Greek Myth Adventure (Edinburgh Festival) and the short film Tall Storey.
Ellie is currently Artistic Director at Southwark Playhouse.
The New Wolsey Theatre creates, develops and produces a vital and dynamic programme of theatre, and other live performances and projects, for all the people of Suffolk and surrounding areas.
Our aim is to combine a mixture of their own productions, projects, collaborations with other partners and touring work, to create a programme of performances and creative learning projects of the highest quality, maximum diversity and greatest possible accessibility.