“In matters of great importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing,” proclaims Lady Bracknell in the second act of Oscar Wilde’s most popular play. It’s Sarah Giles’ audacious style that makes this reimagining of The Importance of Being Earnest so, well … earnest!

Among the ideologies that imperialism brought to the colonies – class, caste, capitalism, a rambunctious fascination with Victorian aristocracy – perhaps the most remarkable is the freedom to ridicule these ideologies.

Sean O’Shea, Megan Wilding, Helen Thomson and Charles Wu in The Importance of Being Earnest, Sydney Theatre Company, 2023. Photo © Daniel Boud

Wilde referred to this, his final comedy as his response to an American producer’s request for a play “with no real serious interest”. The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People premiered at St James’s Theatre in London on Valentine’s Day in 1895. The story centres around the concept of ‘Bunburying,’ a term Wilde coined to describe the practice of “creating an elaborate deception that allows one to misbehave while seeming to uphold the very highest standards of duty and responsibility”.

Algernon Moncrieff (Charles Wu) and Jack/John...