“It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.” While not the most-quoted line from Oscar Wilde‘s The Importance of Being Earnest, this declaration at the play’s conclusion encapsulates my love for Wilde’s witticisms. O ur interpretations of each epigrammatic remark, long removed from the moral codes of its Victorian audiences, reveal how Western attitudes toward gender and sexuality have shifted. On the flyer for The Corcoran School of the Arts Design’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by CTAD faculty member Tonya Beckman, Wilde stares at the viewer in monochrome, his lips popping in a shade of cherry red: a transgressive figure who shows us how our nonsense can be revelatory. This mischievous spirit was on stage as the student actors cajoled, condemned, and conspired with each other.  In this classic drawing-room comedy, two English gents, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, confess that they have each invented a fictitious relation who is forever in need, allowing them to escape social obligations — a scheme Algernon dubs “bunburying” after his imaginary invalid friend, Bunbury. Their deceptions spiral when they assume the same alter ego, “Ernest,” to woo their respective love interests, Gwendolen and Cecily, each obsessed with marrying a man named Ernest.  ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ key art, The Corcoran School of the Arts Design. Even without the magical realism of a story like The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde’s characters and plots have a surrealist quality. Scenic designer John Traub and sasistant scenic designer Olivia Goncalves embraced the whimsy with a back wall of suspended silver frames, empty and overlapping like a ghostly collage. Vintage bird cages hung on either side of the stage, a spotlight shining on their chipped white-and-blue paint, casting a large shadow of bars. The set was minimalist — just a few chairs and tables — but its intentional details stood out, such as the abundance of green in the garden scene, a visual complement to Miss Prism’s aphorism about the futilities of young love, “Ripeness can be trusted. Young women are green.” My favorite performance of the night was Caley Plank as the fiery Gwendolen. She handled Gwendolen’s sexually suggestive lines with the perfect repressed excitement and comical desperation of a debutante. Her impassioned, booming deliveries radiated from the stage, injecting energy into a play that can quickly devolve into mumbled, motionless dialogue. Alec Schneller’s physical acting while portraying Jack Worthing was also notable. As the conflict of Act II reached its peak, so did Schneller. He flopped onto the couches, hands shaking, eyes bulging with exasperation. The cause of this frustration was everyone’s favorite Wildean bachelor, Algernon, played by Kevin Lozano. Lozano had the best accent in the cast, a necessary achievement as Algernon’s allure rests in his carefree upper-class cadence. Ankia Bidoshi captured the sassy youth of Cecily, emphasizing the neurotic tendencies of a love-stricken girl, but at the cost of some of the character’s delicacy. One moment that embraced Cecily’s dreamy nature was after her first meeting with Algernon (disguised as Ernest). Beckman’s choreography in this scene, when Cecily records the encounter in her diary, evoked Clara in The Nutcracker: she twirled, extended the diary before her, pressed it to her heart, and glided across the stage, repeating the sequence three times before exiting. It was girlish, sweet, and entrancing. I would have preferred more of this whimsy in Bidoshi’s performance, which instead leaned into Cecily’s impetuousness and attempted to match Gwendolen’s energy. Many of the performances were overly theatrical, playing instead of becoming, but farce is forgiving in that regard, and silly is the name of the game. Gabriella Tesi, as Lady Bracknell, relished in her iconic lines, delivering them slowly so the audience could savor them. The awkward and lustful interactions between Miss Prism (Audrey Kim) and Dr. Chasuble (Jude Henderson) never failed to make me laugh. It was a joyful experience to see how Wilde’s satire resonates with young audiences despite the stark differences between courtship and modern dating. Over a hundred years and thousands of performances later, poking fun at fools in love still makes for a serious good time.  Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes with a 10-minute intermission The Importance of Being Earnest played February 26 to March 1, 2026, at George Washington University’s Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, University Student Center, 800 21st Street, NW. Tickets ($12.51) are available online or in person at the Box Office.  The program for The Importance of Being Earnest is online here. Costume Design by Emily Vallozzi; Lighting Design by Dean Leong; Sound Design by Lee Martinez Cruz; Dramaturg by Katrina Heil; Stage Management by Melanie Kurtz The post GWU’s ‘Importance of Being Earnest’ is seriously funny and earnestly absurd appeared first on DC Theater Arts. ...read more read less