14 Feb 2022
On This Day
14 February 2022 Cheryl

14 February 1895: Oscar Wilde’s final play is first staged

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

The Marquess of Queensberry was becoming frantic in his efforts to stop his son (Lord Alfred Douglas) from seeing Oscar Wilde, and he planned to make a public scene by throwing a grotesque tribute onstage at the end of the play’s performance. It was a bouquet of rotting vegetables. Wilde was tipped off and the plot was foiled, but Queensberry hung around outside the theatre for hours, muttering with fury, before delivering his ghastly bouquet to the stage door. [1]

Oscar Wilde’s final play, The Importance of Being Earnest, was first performed on 14 February 1895, at the St. James’s Theatre in London, England.

Opening night was a glittering occasion. The audience wore evening dress and Wilde appeared in a coat with a black velvet collar carrying white gloves. As the curtain fell, he was greeted with a standing ovation. The evening was a triumph, making it his fourth major success in only three years. His earlier play, An Ideal Husband had only opened a month earlier and was still playing to packed houses a few streets away.

Anticipating a memorable evening in the theatre, the London press had sent a full complement of reviewers who were not disappointed. Critics adored the play and so did audiences.

The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy of manners that satirizes Victorian society and its attitudes towards marriage, morality, and social class. It’s the story of two young men, false identities, the hearts of two young women, and a series of misunderstandings and farcical situations poking fun at society and its conventions. Naturally, the play reaches a happy conclusion.

It was an artistic breakthrough for Wilde, something between self-parody and a deceptively flippant commentary on dramatic genre. It stands as one of Wilde’s most enduring works and is considered to be his best play.

Sadly, it was also the beginning of the end for Wilde, who was arrested on a charge of gross indecency two months later. On 6 April 1895, his name was removed from the programme and all publicity for the play. The box office collapsed immediately and The Importance of Being Earnest closed on 8 May, having run for 83 performances.

With his reputation in tatters and his life ruined beyond repair, Oscar Wilde died a broken man at the age of 46 in 1900.