A SPECIAL interactive adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest will be performed in Basingstoke. 

The Importance of Being Earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on February 14, 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London.

It is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations.

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In this riotous twist on a much-loved classic, the show opens to looming disaster; the actor playing Ernest in Oscar Wilde’s famed farce fails to arrive on cue. In a monumental effort to save the show, a real audience member is quickly cast in the lead role. 

Audience members are also encouraged to step into the spotlight, and led backstage for costume and make up, impromptu auditions, the painting of portraits, the chanting of mantras; doing whatever’s needed to help the show go on, an absurd controlled madness ensues – until it feels as if there are almost as many audience members in the cast as there are in the audience.

The show will be at The Haymarket in Basingstoke on Thursday, November 30.