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"Ernest in Love" at Oglethorpe University
Atlanta - Jack loves Gwendolyn. But Gwendolyn loves
Ernest. Ernest is really Algernon, who loves Cecily, who hates
Gwendolyn, who never heard of Jack in her life. Except that Jack
(Cecily's uncle) is also Ernest and is engaged to Gwendolyn
(Algernon's cousin).
And who is Mr. Bunbury? Dizzy yet?
The Playmakers of Oglethorpe University will bring "Ernest in
Love," lyrics by Anne Croswell and music by Lee Pockris, to the
Conant Performing Arts Center at Oglethorpe University. This musical
that is based on "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde
will be performed April 10 - April 13 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7.
"I'd been wanting to direct 'The Importance of Being Earnest' for
several years now, and while we were putting together the season
line-up for this year, it seemed a natural choice," said Lee
Knippenberg, director of theatre. "As we continued to plot and plan,
we settled on 'Ernest in Love,' which is a very close musical
adaptation of Wilde's original. In fact, many of the scenes are as
Wilde wrote them, just edited to make room for the songs."
"The wit and wisdom of Wilde shine through, and in some ways are
highlighted by the musical numbers, which often use some of the more
famous bon mots from 'The Importance of Being Earnest' as refrains.
For instance, Lady Bracknell and Jack sing a high-speed duet which
repeats the line 'A handbag, a handbag is not a proper mother…'"
Knippenberg laughs. "She's reproaching him, he's appeasing her, and
it's all so … absurd. And funny!"
Ernest in Love will mark the end of the "Wilde Nights" season, a
series of thematic plays about or by Oscar Wilde. The season also
included Telling Wilde Tales and Gross Indecency. "If you really
want to explore the substantial impact Wilde has had on Western
culture, you need to look at him from several different
perspectives," says Troy Dwyer, assistant director of theatre.
"Doing just one show about Wilde or written by Wilde presents only a
single thread of a much larger cultural story. Wilde's life and art
worked symbiotically to change the way Western culture regarded
identity politics."
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