IMPORTANCE

OF

BEING EARNEST

(In Process of being Remastered)

The film adapted from the play by Oscar Wilde immortal masterpiece features a remarkable all Black cast whom rank as the finest American Stage and Film performers assembled.

A farcical, hilarious comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations.

Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways.

Starring; Oscar nominee for To Kill A Mockingbird, Emmy and Tony Award Winner “Brock Peters”, Also starring Emmy and Tony Award Winner, NAACP Theatre Award winner “Obba Babatunde”, with Jazz Diva “Chris Calloway” and “Carol (CCH) Pounder”, recognized for her numerous Emmy nominations and accolades in films nominated for Best Picture Oscar.

BEFORE THERE WAS HAMILTON, THERE WAS EARNEST

As the musical sensation “Hamilton” lights up Broadway and captures the collective imagination of audiences around the nation, its success serves as a reminder of the progress that has been made and as a salute to the trailblazers in the fight for equality that lead to this point—pioneers like Oscar Wilde and Peter Anthony Andrews.  One you probably know, and the other you should.

More than a literary genius, Oscar Wilde was a flamboyant, rabble-rousing trailblazer who challenged the bourgeois establishment and traditional values of British society in the late 19th century through his literary masterpieces.  Despite enduring exile and imprisonment due to his homosexuality, his voice could not be silenced.  Perhaps no other work epitomizes his clever and satirical wit quite like his classic play The Importance of Being Earnest.

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In 1992, executive producer Peter Anthony Andrews, former Vice President in charge of Primetime Programming at NBC and founder of the Warner Bros. Women and Minorities Writers’ Workshop, blazed his own trail, adapting and producing an independent film version of the Wilde classic with a twist—utilizing an all-black cast.  Despite a strong review from the Hollywood Reporter and standout performances among the actors, this historic film version has remained largely unseen by audiences—until now.

As Algernon, Wren Brown captures the essence of Wilde’s conniving yet charismatic character with a calm and cool charm, inviting the audience to question the value of lies in the pursuit of love (while simultaneously avoiding annoying social duties, of course).  Featuring the late, great Brock Peters (To Kill a Mockingbird, Star Trek IV and VI) as Dr. Chasuble, Emmy and Tony-nominated Obba Babatunde (Miss Evers’ Boys, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge ) as Lane, and Emmy-nominated CCH Pounder (Avatar, The Shield, NCIS: New Orleans) as the scene stealing, holier-than-thou Miss Prism, this rendition remains loyal to the language of Wilde while offering a uniquely delightful contemporary vision that enhances and underscores the original play’s key thematic elements regarding society, marriage, and class.  Ann Weldon has for six decades starred or co-starred in regional theater , feature films, television as well as distinguished herself in night clubs nationally as a renowned jazz, pop and torch songstress. As the lead actress in the famed prestigious American Conservatory Theater (ACT) she starred in the BWAY play FLEA IN HER EAR directed by Gower Champion and went on to be in such films as OUT OF DARKNESS and WHAT’S COOKIN’ as well as a host of television appearances such as 9 To 5. Her body of work is noteworthy and always with commendable critical acclaim as is her portrayal of Lady Bracknell.

More importantly, producer Andrews and director Kurt Baker’s film version of the Wilde classic is consistently engaging and entertaining.  From the opening discussion of identity and duality over forbidden cucumber sandwiches between Brown’s Algernon and Jack (played by Daryl Keith Roach) to the closing credits, the players unite to create a world that simultaneously blends late 19th century Victorian society with the contemporary U.S., a world in which race, without direct reference, becomes inextricably woven into the fabric of the facades and pretentions of the so-called high class society with humor and grace.

Long before the world was rocked by the race-bending musical Hamilton, maverick producer Andrews, the first African-American VP at NBC, gave audiences a version of Earnest twenty plus years ahead of its time, one that is finally available on DVD and digital download, one that should be appreciated by viewers now and for years to come—and one that would make fellow rebel Oscar Wilde stand up in his grave and cheer!

Justin Brewer
[email protected]
writer/producer/professor

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