The
Importance of Being Frank is Paddy
Gormley's adaptation, in rhyming verse, of Oscar
Wilde's
masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest.
Scroll down or click on the picture below for five click-to-play
audio excerpts from a live audience recording.
Links to cast members' personal pages and other related
websites my be found towards the bottom of this page.
The
Importance of Being Frank is a light-hearted subversion
of the plot of Oscar Wilde's famous
play. Whereas Wilde's play
begins in London and proceeds to Woolton, Paddy
Gormley begins with an adaptation of Wilde's
Act 2, in which Cecily finds the
calling card of Bad Cousin Ernest and
decides to go to London in search of him. The plot never
recovers, but many of Wilde's famous lines and ideas take on
new context and meaning.
This adaptation requires a cast of eight: Cecily, Gwendolen, Lady
Bracknell, Miss Prisim, Algernon, Jack, Chasuble and Lane. The
running time is approximately seventy minutes with an optional
interval.
The audio excerpts below are taken
from the rehearsed reading by Actors & Writers
London in
June 2009, directed by Martin Cort. Copies
of the full recording are available to would-be producers of the
play.
Click any photograph below for the corresponding actor's website.
Scroll down further for links to director Martin
Cort's site, the Actors & Writers
London website and other related sites by Paddy Gormley.
The Actors
& Writers London website features biographies of more than 150 actors, writers and directors
and hundreds of cast lists of rehearsed playreadings.
Martin Cort's website, which describes
his work as actor and director, also includes click-to-play audio recordings.
About fifteen of Paddy
Gormley's plays
for stage and radio are featured on his Exciting Writing website, including
extensive click-to-play audio and video of performances and readings.
