Hugh Skinner, Ncuti Gatwa, Sharon D Clarke, Richard Cant, and Amanda Lawrence are set to star in a new reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest‘ directed by Max Webster at the Lyttelton Theatre, as reported by Deadline.
Webster and NT’s casting director Alastair Coomer has also enlisted Richard Cant to play Reverend Canon Chasuble and Amanda Lawrence as Miss Prism in the 1895 satire.
The show will run at NT’s Lyttelton Theatre from November 20 to January 25, 2025.
During a challenging period, Wilde wrote ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ while balancing family life and maintaining a relationship with his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. This was amid disapproval from Douglas’s father, the Marquess of Queensbury.
The director has a knack for attracting talent from the long-running BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who. Recently, Webster directed David Tennant, a famous Doctor Who actor, in Macbeth at the Donmar Warehouse. The production also featured Cush Jumbo, known for her role in the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood.
Webster mentioned the controversy surrounding ‘The Importance of Being Earnest,’ as it premiered in London amidst accusations of Wilde’s homosexuality by the Marquess of Queensbury. Wilde’s subsequent libel case loss led to a conviction for gross indecency and a two-year jail term.
Source: Deadline
