A Woman Of No Importance

By Oscar Wilde

Directed by Catherine Schwerin and Wiebke Störtenbecker

Debonair, dashing Lord Illingworth has taken a shine to eager young Gerald Arbuthnot, offering him a position as his secretary. The peers and politicians gathered for afternoon tea at Lady Hunstanton's estate are all a-titter with the news, some not so approving, though all in agreement that the saintly and retiring Mrs Arbuthnot must be proud of her son's achievement. This means social advancement and a secure future for Gerald. Perhaps he can dare to propose to lovely young Hester Worsely, the American heiress whose Puritan values are somewhat jarring in a world where what counts most is to be entertaining.

However, when Mrs Arbuthnot discovers that Lord Illingworth is in fact the dastardly George Harford, the man who promised her marriage and abandoned her with child over 20 years ago, she cannot even pretend to be pleased. Yet how can she object when it means revealing that she is a fallen woman? Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance is a comic Victorian soap opera about class, morals, and the triumph of love - laced with a hearty portion of Wildean witticism.