A Woman of No Importance

Synopsis

A house party is on at Lady Hunstanton's country home. Gerald Arbuthnot, an earnest and upright young man, is overwhelmed when the suave Lord Illingworth offers him employment. But Gerald's mother implores him to refuse - will she be forced to reveal the secret she has kept hidden for 20 years? First produced 1893.

Our Review:

17 September 2003

The Theatre Royal Haymarket is no stranger to the work of Oscar Wilde. In 1893, the theatre hosted the premieres of A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, while in more recent years, Peter Hall has found success here with revivals of Husband and Lady Windermere's Fan, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson.

Now Woman returns to its birthplace care of a new midwife, former RSC artistic director Adrian Noble, who delivers Wilde's pithy social satire hot on the heels of Ibsen's relentlessly moralising epic drama Brand, with Ralph Fiennes in the title role at this same address.

As with Wilde's other plays, A Woman of No Importance takes place in the gilded world of 19th-century English aristocrats and seeks to expose the hypocrisies at the heart of their shallow society. In this case, the setting is Lady Hunstanton's country estate where, in b...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (194.200.154.253) - 30 January 2004:

Stunning. This is how Wilde hsould be seen. An excellent cast making the most of a wonderful play. Superb set as well....

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