Last night I went to see the University of Oregon theater department’s performance of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. I had seen a couple of their performances before, and they are always great, but this one was by far my favorite. The play was absolutely hilarious and the audience loved it. It had a snappy pace and the actors’ comedic timing was always on point.
But what really makes this play amazing is Wilde’s dialogue. The fact that the one liners are still funny and relevant today is a testament to his skills as a writer, but also to his ability to analyze society. He managed to captured the ridiculousness of Victorian society’s obsession with social status in a way that still rings true in modern times. When I look at shows today like The Real Housewives of Insert City Here or Made in Chelsea, it is plain to see that even though society has made many advances, we are still quite similar to our Victorian counterparts.
I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite quotes from the night:
1. “Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live nor the smallest instinct about when to die.”
2. “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
3. “Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.”
4. “The suspense is terrible...I hope it will last!”
And just in time for mothers day:
5. “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.”
