Ponteland Repertory Society production of The Importance of Being Earnest promises to be a 'Wilde' night of comedy

It will be the society’s first full length play since Covid – following up from the very successful Wizard of Oz in September of last year.

Director Philip Browell said the show had been only a week out from performance in March 2020 when lockdown put a stop to it.

He added: “Earnest is the story of two bachelors who both create alter egos named Ernest to escape their tiresome lives. They attempt to win the hearts of two women who, conveniently, claim to only love men called Ernest.

“They struggle to keep up with their own stories and become tangled in a tale of deception, disguise and misadventure.

“It’s a production that has been a long time in the making and so we are all just terribly excited to finally get it in front of an audience.”

The cast are equally excited and Mike Giblin, a newcomer to PRS, has felt welcomed by the society and has enjoyed taking on the role of Algernon Moncrieff.

He said: “Algy is an 1890s playboy really and playing a footloose bachelor has been enormous fun – especially when rehearsals are in the pub!”

Real life married couple Jason and Claire Long get to really test their acting skills as the uptight governess Miss Prism and ‘woman-shy’ Reverend Dr Chasuble, who are engaged in the early stages of a very ‘will, they won’t they’ romance as a side story to the main characters.

No Earnest is complete without Lady Bracknell and Caroline Reynolds who plays her said: “Lady Bracknell is the antagonist of the play, a strongly opinionated matriarch who bullies everyone in her way.

“She has some cracking one liners that audiences will recognise and I hope I do them justice!”

Tickets are available at www.pontelandrep.co.uk for the performances in Ponteland Memorial Hall at 7pm on Friday, April 21 and Saturday, April 22 and matinee performances at 2.15pm on the 22nd and 23rd. Prices are £12 per adult and £6 per child.