E X T E N S I O N INTERESTING FACTS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Wilde wrote the play in August 1894, while he was spending his holidays at Worthing with his family. The name of Lady Bracknell was inspired by Lord Alfred s mother who lived at Bracknell, however, the original name of the character, which Wilde used as a working title so as not to spoil the surprise, was Lady Lancing. Oscar Wilde sculpture in Merrion Square Park, Dublin The play originally had four acts. When the stage manager of the theatre asked Wilde to reduce its length, the playwright merged1 the last two acts and left out the character of Mr Gribsby, a lawyer who comes from London to arrest Ernest (at that moment interpreted by Algernon) for his unpaid restaurant bills in the city. In the scene, Algernon risks being taken to prison unless Jack agrees to pay for his brother s bills which, in fact, are his own, and which he hadn t paid to keep up the bad reputation of his imaginary brother. The play made its debut2 on 14th February 1895, at St James s Theatre in London. It could have been a disaster for its author since Lord Alfred s father had planned to ruin the show by offering Wilde a bouquet of rotten3 vegetables, but since Wilde was informed of it, he made some policemen refuse admission to him and the play was a huge success. On the freezing night of the première Wilde arrived dressed in florid sobriety , wearing a green carnation4. 1. merged: combined two or more things to form a single thing. 2. debut: first public performance. 3. rotten: that have decayed and cannot be eaten. 4. carnation: 100