02/22/2026
Get your tickets now and go Wilde with excitement for this insightful, hilarious play!
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/vcs/1820559
The Importance of Being Earnest
APRIL 10-26
Written by Oscar Wilde
Directed by Eric Lewis
~family friendly~
The Importance of Being Earnest — Synopsis
Two charming young men—Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff—have each invented an alter ego named “Ernest” to escape the constraints of Victorian society. Jack uses “Ernest” as an excuse to slip away to London for fun; Algernon uses “Bunbury,” an imaginary invalid friend, to dodge tedious social obligations. Their double lives collide when both men fall in love: Jack with Algernon’s cousin Gwendolen, and Algernon with Jack’s ward Cecily. Unfortunately for them, both women are convinced they can only love a man named Ernest.
As the men scramble to maintain their deceptions, they become entangled in a whirlwind of mistaken identities, secret engagements, and social absurdities, all presided over by the formidable Lady Bracknell, whose interrogation of Jack is one of the great comic showdowns in theatre. The chaos peaks when the truth about Jack’s origins—an abandoned baby found in a handbag at Victoria Station—finally comes to light, revealing an unexpected family connection and resolving the romantic entanglements with Wildean flourish.
The play ends with everyone happily paired off, and Jack discovering that he has been Ernest all along—proving, as he says, “the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”
The Importance of Being Earnest – Valley Center Stage / Sallal Grange, Multiple dates and times - Two London bachelors, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, invent alter egos - Jack as the rakish "Ernest" and Algernon's imaginary invalid "Bunbury" - to escape social duties and indulge in city ple...