Wilde Week, a week-long celebration of the life and work of Oscar Wilde, will take place from Monday 07 to Saturday 12 July 2014. The week will include three new productions which dramatically recount Wilde’s swift and painful fall from grace and subsequent imprisonment, as well as a condensed version of Wilde’s most famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest, which opened in 1895 at the old St. James Theatre. It was only four days later that the Marquess of Queensberry left his calling card at Wilde's club inscribed "For Oscar Wilde, posing sodomite", inciting Wilde to sue for libel, and a mere 15 weeks after the opening of Earnest that Wilde was sent to jail.
The condensed version of The Importance of Being Earnest will take place at lunchtimes, as is now customary at the St. James, and also early evening at 6.15pm Monday to Thursday and 5.30pm on Friday.
