Jack Worthing lives in the country and pretends to have a brother in London called Ernest, so he has a perfect excuse to slip away to the city. Jack’s friend Algernon has created an imaginary friend called Bunbury, so that he too has a reason for escaping the tedium of his own social life in London.

Problems arise when Jack falls in love with Gwendolyn and Algernon falls in love with Cecily, even though both young women feel that they can only marry a man whose name is Earnest. Added to which is Gwendolyn’s tyrannical mother Lady Bracknell, who refuses to allow Jack to marry Gwendolyn when she finds out that as a baby he was discovered lying in a handbag, left at a railway station.

First performed at the St. James Theatre London on February 14 1895, this comedy of manners is the most famous of Oscar Wilde’s theatrical works. It is a masterpiece of truth about class and gender disguised as an airy trifle.

Le Théâtre du Héron presents in collaboration with ADGE this wonderful play in its own unique style, in which comical physical theatre and visual humour match the wit already present in the text. Live music too adds a fresh and contemporary touch to the production, which can be seen in cities around Europe in 2026–2027.

The production is colourful, physical and visually clear, with music incorporated where it serves the play. Characters are clearly depicted, easy to understand.
Our production retains Wilde’s original language, substantially cut and streamlined to around 90–95 minute