The Importance of Being Earnest
23-26 April 2014
By Oscar Wilde; Directed by Beth Duce
Viv Bate and Holly Davenport
We are proud to present a selection of video clips from our April 2014 production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest', filmed by our very own Andy Smith.
Hopefully these will provide you with some further entertainment - and if you weren't able to attend or have not yet been able to see an Adel Players show, they will give a flavour of what we do. Please have a look and let us know your thoughts!
In addition, there are some further images of our two Cecilys - Holly Davenport and Viv Bate. Viv played the role in our 1966 production of Wilde's classic comedy, and 48 years on, Holly was able to take up the baton with great success!
For images and more information on this production, scroll down...
A playlist of three clips from Act 1, at Algernon's flat in Half Moon Street. For the full scene, click here.
Director Beth Duce makes a presentation to Holly
A playlist of three clips from Act 2, in the garden at the Manor House in Woolton. For the full scene, click here.
Viv and Holly - our two Cecilys!
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The third and final play in our 2013/14 season of comedies was a revival of 'The Importance of Being Earnest', written by Oscar Wilde in 1895.
Over 535 tickets were sold at Adel Memorial Hall for the production.
To read an independent review by Sophie Franklin, written after the Saturday night performance, head on over to Leeds blog The Culture Vulture.
Hover your cursor over the images below to see captions!
Audience Feedback
Reaction on Twitter to our Friday night performance
Messages received from our audience members...
A massive congratulations to cast and crew of 'Earnest'! It was utterly fantastic! You should all be very proud! - RN
A most enjoyable and excellent performance... I greatly enjoyed the evening. - GS
Well done to everyone involved in last night's production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest'! Really enjoyed it! Such a good adaptation of an old classic. Bravo! I'd say it was quite perfect, but that would leave no room for developments... - CD
Great performance last night, especially for an opening night! - LL
I would just like to say how enjoyable the production was. Very professionally executed. - CG
I loved 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. I was very impressed with the two leading men and Miss Prism. And obviously the sets were fantastic! - HT
Another great performance from Adel Players. We all really enjoyed the play and found it very amusing. Keep up the good work. - AR
Cast and Crew
Our continued thanks to Dragon Timber and Plywood Ltd for its invaluable support of all our productions.
Director's Notes
This is the soft and rose-scented summer of late Victorian England's idle rich!
Elegant apartments in London, huge country estates in Hertfordshire, extravagant clothes and endless afternoons spent sipping tea, eating muffins and gossiping about nothing in particular.
Wilde wrote this, his last and greatest play, in three weeks during a family holiday at a seaside resort. His opening night in London on 14th February 1895 was met with huge acclaim.
Most of the upper-class audience would have recognised their own lives being played out in front of them, and the references Wilde sprinkled cleverly amongst his many epigrams and witty dialogue would have highly amused them.
Trains, telegrams, Gower Street omnibuses, constant name dropping (with the occasional street or restaurant plucked from reality) would all draw the audience into this fantastical world created out of upper-class London life; this was a master at work.
With this play in particular, Wilde was holding a mirror up to the audience. With his sharp-eyed satire, he made fun of their excesses, absurdities and everything he despised about the high society of the day.
When Wilde was asked 'what sort of play are we to expect?', he replied: "Exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy, and it has its philosophy - that we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality."
Beth Duce
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