Between the lines
DESCRIBED as a “hilarious satire on the hypocrisy, snobbishness and complacency of upper-class Victorian society” and directed by Tony Award winning director Patrick Mason, A Woman of No Importance opens at the Gate Theatre next Tuesday. Although it is not staged as often as some of his more well-known plays such as The importance of Being Earnest or An Ideal Husband, it is classic Wilde with all of his hallmark wit and satirical social commentary.
The play was written after the success of Lady Windemere’s Fan and premiered in 1893 at the Haymarket Theatre in London. It proved to be a great success although it has not proved as popular in modern times. The subject matter is again the vices, secrets and hypocrisy of the English upper classes and perhaps more than some of his other plays, it reflects his own views on the society he lived in. It is also quite a complex play which is not easy to define or pigeon-hole.
