In 1895, Oscar Wilde was at the height of his career: with two plays running simultaneously in London’s theatres — An Ideal Husband and his newly premiered comedy The Importance of Being Earnest — he was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, admired around the world, and was living, almost openly, an intense romance with a young aristocrat. Within just a few months, however, a series of reckless decisions would lead him from glory to ruin. At the center of this tragic downfall was his final play, The Importance of Being Earnest, which marks 130 years since its premiere.

The Triumphant and Tragic Premiere of Oscar Wilde

On February 14, 1895, the St. James’s Theatre, in London’s West End, hosted one of the most brilliant — and fateful — moments of the writer and playwright’s life. That opening night of The Importance of Being Earnest, England’s cultural and aristocratic elite, including the Prince of Wales himself, gathered to witness what would be Wilde’s fourth consecutive masterpiece in just three years. Wilde was in attendance, dressed in his signature black velvet-collared coat, a green scarab ring, and the iconic green carnation on his lapel — a veiled symbol of his homoerotic affiliations.

Onstage, the play was a triumph. An elegant, witty, and absurdly well-written comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest seemed to confirm that Wilde was the great chronicler of Victorian society. But backstage, scandal was already brewing. Within less than three months, Wilde’s name would be stricken from playbills and from the high society that had applauded him. Accused of “gross indecency” after a series of legal turns involving his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde would be sentenced to two years of hard labor — a punishment that led to his death in Paris five years later.

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
— Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

The Plot: Triviality Elevated to Art

The Importance of Being Earnest is, above all, a sophisticated satire of English aristocratic customs. The play revolves around two gentlemen — John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff — who adopt pseudonyms to escape social responsibilities and pursue romances in other circles of society. John presents himself as “Ernest” in London, while maintaining the appearance of a responsible guardian in the countryside. Upon discovering the ruse, Algernon decides to use the same alias to woo the young Cecily Cardew.

The confusion of identities escalates when both love interests — Cecily and Gwendolen Fairfax — declare that they could only marry a man named “Ernest.” The play culminates in the discovery that John’s real name is Ernest, turning the game of deceptions into a comic fate. The play’s title, with its untranslatable pun between the name “Ernest” and the virtue “earnest” (serious, sincere), is the key to the work’s paradoxical humor.

Behind the Scenes: A Play Marked by Destruction

The premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest took place at the peak of Wilde’s fame but also at the most fragile point in his personal life. While rehearsing the play, Wilde traveled with Lord Alfred Douglas — the provocative and spoiled “Bosie” — to Algeria. Their relationship was already the subject of rumors. Bosie’s father, the brutal and homophobic Marquess of Queensberry, attempted to attend the premiere to throw a bouquet of rotten vegetables on stage. He was stopped, but his humiliation turned into vengeance.

“In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.”
— Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

Shortly afterward, the Marquess left a calling card at the Albemarle Club with the (misspelled) message: “For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite.” Urged by Bosie and against the advice of friends like George Bernard Shaw, Wilde sued the Marquess for libel. It was a fatal mistake. To defend himself, the Marquess would have to prove that Wilde did indeed engage in homosexual acts — and he had the evidence.

The trial exposed Wilde’s writings, including the homoeroticism in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and love letters exchanged with Bosie. The defense claimed that Wilde had committed acts of “gross indecency” with various young men — including male prostitutes who testified against him. Wilde lost the case, was imprisoned, and even though he was praised for his courtroom defense of “the love that dare not speak its name,” he was sentenced to two years in Reading Gaol.

The Play After the Scandal: Silence, Resurrection, and Glory

After Wilde’s imprisonment, his name was removed from the play’s credits. Still, The Importance of Being Earnest endured. Audiences continued to fill the theatre, unable to ignore the brilliance of the comedy. Contemporary critics recognized the play as “a jewel of dramatic structure” and a compendium of the wittiest maxims of the Victorian era.

The play would only return to official repertoires with Wilde’s name after his death, when the world began to reassess the author as a cultural martyr. Today, The Importance of Being Earnest is considered one of the greatest comedies in the English language — frequently staged and eternally studied for its mix of levity and social critique.

In Brazil, A Importância de Ser Prudente (as it was often translated) has seen several productions. In the 1960s, it was performed by Paulo Autran, and in 1989, Marco Nanini played Lady Bracknell in a memorable production directed by Maurício Sherman, reaffirming the play’s comic and critical plasticity.

On Film: Focus on Romance, Less on Satire

In 2002, The Importance of Being Earnest received a lavish film adaptation directed by Oliver Parker, who had previously brought other Wilde works to the screen, such as An Ideal Husband (1999). Featuring a star-studded cast led by Colin Firth as Jack Worthing and Rupert Everett as Algernon Moncrieff — repeating their collaboration from Another Country and reuniting after the success of Shakespeare in Love — the film embraced a refined aesthetic, with lush costumes and idyllic Edwardian English locations. Frances O’Connor and Reese Witherspoon rounded out the central quartet as Gwendolen and Cecily, respectively, while Judi Dench lent her comic gravitas to the unforgettable Lady Bracknell.

Despite the cast’s prestige and the film’s fidelity to the original witty spirit, reviews were mixed. Some praised its charm and visual elegance, while others noted an excess of reverence or a certain formal coldness that dulled the play’s subversive satire. Still, Parker’s version remains the best-known among contemporary audiences and is often used as a gateway to Wilde’s theatrical universe, functioning as both homage and cinematic translation of an essential work.

Cultural Relevance and Legacy

Over a century after its debut, The Importance of Being Earnest remains a symbol of Oscar Wilde’s brilliance and a sobering reminder of the price paid for defying sexual and social norms in a hypocritical society. The play manages to mock the elite without preaching, to mock love without cynicism, and to mock language itself without losing meaning.

It was Wilde’s final play staged during his lifetime. From his prison cell in Reading, he revised the text and published it in book form, even though he had lost his citizenship, fortune, and health. A play about men who lie to love and women who love names became his artistic epitaph: a portrait of human comedy with the melancholy of a man who laughed through his own downfall.

And so, The Importance of Being Earnest lives on — on stage, on screen, and on the page — as a comedy that, beneath its lightness, reveals the weight of an era, a society, and a tragic fate.