THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

The Importance of Being Earnest is a delightfully trivial comedy—all frivolity and frippery, a light-hearted bit of froth set in jolliest old England.

Or is it?

'There is a common conception of this play that it is a silly comedy not to be taken any further than face value. I think the truth of the piece is far more than that,' said Sean Krill, who plays Jack Worthing in the Court Theatre production of The Importance of Being Earnest, which runs through Sunday, Dec. 26.

Indeed, scratch the surface of Wilde's sparkling wit and you'll find a story rich in subversion. This is a tale that tweaks—and tweaks hard—the hypocrisy of smug, self-righteous moralists.

Earnest is rich with the sly, insubordinate merriment that Oscar Wilde penned without peer. It is also the story of two gentlemen who, in order to pursue their hearts desires, are forced to disguise who they really are.

The incredibly convoluted plot can be somewhat boiled down thusly:

Jack Worthing is a staid and respectable pillar of a rural community where he is a large landowner and the guardian of 18-year-old Cecily. When he wants to shed his serious, upright persona, he heads to London—always with the excuse that he has to go and bail his ne'er do well brother Ernest out of trouble. Jack's big secret? Ernest does not exist. He's a fiction invented so that Jack can escape to a life as a bachelor bon vivant in London without ruining his upstanding reputation in the country.

Jack's best friend is Londoner Algernon Moncrief ( the inimitable Lance Baker ) , a roguish bachelor and dyed-in-the-wool member of the idle rich. When Algernon decides he wants to court the comely young Cecily, he has to take on a more proper persona—and so presents himself as Jack's brother Ernest—but a very respectable Ernest and not the troublemaker Jack has invented—at Jack's country estate.

Also key to The Importance of Being Earnest, is the term 'Bunburying,' which is defined as the practice of inventing a fictitious person. The definition is rooted in Algernon's handy, imaginary friend, a chap named—you guessed it—Bunbury. Bunbury is a chronic invalid whom Algernon runs off to attend whenever he feels the need to get out of town or get out of unpleasant commitments.

Or, as Algernon puts it when speaking with Jack: 'If it weren't for Bunbury's extraordinarily bad health, I wouldn't be able to dine with you at the Savoy tonight, for I have really been engaged to Aunt Augusta for over a week.'

So is Wilde writing a knee-slapper about mistaken identities? Or is he addressing the ridiculous convolutions and deceptions some people are forced to wrap themselves in so as to seem 'moral' according to societal standards?

'One could judge and dismiss Jack and Algy because they are liars. But aren't they to be lauded for trying to pursue their true hearts' yearning?' notes Charles Newell, artistic director of the Court Theatre and director of the Court's production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

'Wilde was grappling and struggling and challenging contemporary morality in the most wit-filled way with Earnest, ' he said.

The play is then a 'much more mature and complicated examination of what is moral' than what perhaps is evident just on the surface, Newell added.

Perhaps it's worth noting here that Wilde was gay.

In 1895, while Earnest and Wilde's An Ideal Husband were at the height of their popularity on London stages, Wilde was put on trial and charged with 'gross indecency,' ( code for being gay ) charges that stemmed from his longtime relationship with Alfred Douglas.

Both The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband were shut down because of the accusations, ostensibly because it wasn't seemly for popular culture to be celebrating the plays of an accused sodomist.

Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years of hard labor. Within five years, he was dead.

Parallels between the custodians of morality that sent Wilde to prison in the 1890s and the 'moral issues' that largely defined the recent presidential election became inescapable during the rehearsal process, Newell, Krill and Baker noted.

'As the tenure of the country shifts rightward, I think we are going to see a lot more people with their Bunburies down. The play couldn't be more timely,' Baker said. 'Wilde found himself the victim of a moralistic crusade. I think we may be seeing more and more of that sort of thing over the next four years,' he added.

'We were right in the middle of rehearsal when all the election stuff came up—the whole idea that the race was being defined by moral values,' Newell said. 'The play can make you ask—What are genuine, true moral values? It is about falling in love, and pursuing that love despite what 'society' says about it?

'Of course, for a lot of people, I think the political parallels won't even come up. It certainly isn't my goal to be overly political with this play. I think one has to be very careful about bringing politics into theater—I didn't choose to do Earnest because of the political relevance it now carries. But, if like me, people have been really wrestling with these issues and struggling to figure out what we mean by 'moral values,' I think they will see the parallels,' Newell said.

It's also important to stress, said Baker, that much of the charm of the play lies not in a political analysis of it, but in its marvelous, irresistible wit.

'There is nothing like a well-tuned play to lighten a messy world; to just give you hope that happy endings can come from great chaos. And this show definitely plunges the depths of great chaos,' Baker said. 'I think laughter touches something deep inside us. It shakes the bed of our subconscious.'

In the end, The Importance of Being Earnest harkens back to a Shakespearian quote: 'To thine own self be true.'

'I think Wilde was trying to say that in order to really get what you want and to make your dreams come true, you have to be yourself,' Krill said. 'You don't have to put on this front or lie. Be earnest about who you are, even if that means not following the rules.'

The Court Theatre production of The Importance of Being Earnest runs at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 26 at the Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago. Tickets are $35-$50. For more information call ( 773 ) 753-4472.