A Night at the Theatre – Exploring Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
29 October 2025 - All
To enrich their studies, our GCSE Drama pupils travelled to London to see a West End performance featuring some well-known actors. It was an inspiring experience that brought their classroom learning to life. Here’s how they got on:
‘On Thursday 16 Oct, (Oscar Wilde’s birthday!) the Drama GCSE pupils enjoyed a farce-filled evening out in London at the Noël Coward Theatre, watching ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’.
The pupils enjoyed picking out a host of familiar faces who feature in the show, including Olly Alexander (Algernon), Hugh Dennis (Reverend Chasuble), Shobna Gupta (Miss Prism) and Stephen Fry (Lady Bracknell). Predictably, Stephen Fry was a particular audience favourite with his highly acerbic, but hilarious, depiction of the snooty matriarch.
The far-fetched story follows the duplicitous Algernon and Jack as they try to maintain their double lives, after they have both created fictional altered egos called ‘Earnest’ to win the hearts of Cecily and Gwendolen. This production is a modern take on the classic, featuring period costume but interweaving modern references, choreography and music – including Cyndi Lauper and Bruno Mars.
The night was even finished off with everyone on stage and in the audience singing ‘happy birthday’ to Mr Wilde as the ‘encore’!
The performances that all the cast gave (including the scene-stealing butlers), the clever set design and flamboyant costumes will no doubt give all the pupils who were there some rich material for their GCSE theatre review work and, more importantly, a fun filled evening was had by all.’
Mr James Harrington
Director of Drama.
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