Max Webster's staging of Oscar Wilde's comedy at the National Theatre's Lyttelton starred Sharon D Clarke as Lady Bracknell and Ncuti Gatwa as Algy.
The National Theatre staged Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest in the Lyttelton on the South Bank from Thursday 21 November 2024 to Saturday 25 January 2025. Max Webster directed, with Sharon D Clarke, Ncuti Gatwa and Hugh Skinner in the leading parts.
Wilde’s last drawing-room play, subtitled A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, opened at the St James’s Theatre on 14 February 1895. Jack and Algy each invent a second identity to escape social duty. Both borrow the name Ernest to court the women they love.
The first run closed in May 1895, as the trials that ended Wilde’s career ran their course. The play has been revived regularly since the early twentieth century. It introduced Lady Bracknell, the governess Miss Prism and Canon Chasuble.
Webster’s credits include Life of Pi and the Donmar’s Macbeth, and here he reimagined the play.
Clarke, an Olivier Award winner, played Lady Bracknell. Gatwa, known from Doctor Who and Sex Education, played Algy, and Skinner took Jack. Eliza Scanlen played Cecily and Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ played Gwendolen.
The production transferred to the West End in September 2025, with Stephen Fry as Lady Bracknell.