Oscar Wilde was feuding with Gilbert & Sullivan when they wrote Patience as a parody of Wilde's aesthetic personna with their character Bunthorne. Wilde returned the parody by creating the Bunbury scam as Algernon's means of wiggling out of social obligations. Masque Alfresco goes one step further by parodying songs from Patience in this production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Directed by Paul Roder, adapted by Fayra Teeters (also playing Lady Bracknell), the play features slapstick antics, Victorian costumes, contemporary social-political jokes in a family-friendly outdoor setting. Be sure to bring lawn chairs, picnics and your funny bone to this FREE event!

Not unlike our current socio-political landscape, London in the 1890's was rife with scandal and social abuses. Anyone who spoke their truth or departed from the norm was subject to being branded a social outcast, especially Oscar Wilde. All of the characters in Earnest reflect the conflict between "inies" vs "outies" - with Jack Worthing the epitome of the social outcast, not even knowing who his parents are, yet daring to love Gwendolyn, the social darling equivalent to a million likes on Facebook. Her only requirement is for him to legally own the name of Ernest, because it produces "vibrations".