Set Designer

Gerald Barry’s witty and highly original adaptation of this much-loved masterpiece will be conducted by Douglas Boyd and directed by Jack Furness, following his celebrated Garsington productions of The Queen of Spades and Rusalka. The visually striking, colourful and bombastic production features the return of Jennifer France, Henry Waddington and Seán Boylan, with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

If you have any preconceptions about an opera based on Oscar Wilde’s brilliant 1894 comedy of manners and misapprehensions, be prepared to abandon them. The composer Gerald Barry adores the play and has taken inspiration from Wilde’s statement “That we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things in life with a sincere and studied triviality”, turning the play inside out and upside down with reckless effrontery. As Barry has said, “The play’s bones are unshatterable. My version is an X-ray of it.” Any shattering that occurs during the course of the entertainment is more likely to be of plates than of dramatic structure.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Wormsley

A powerful and deeply human portrait of America’s working class at the dawn of the 21st Century.   

In a small Rust Belt town in Pennsylvania, friendships are forged through sweat and laughter. For decades, Tracey and Cynthia have worked side by side, bound by shared history and hard-earned pride. But when whispers of layoffs grow louder, opportunity turns into betrayal. A community built on solidarity begins to splinter, as bitter resentments and unspoken racial divides rise to the surface.    

Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a raw exploration of fractured industries, economic disparity, and the deep divisions that helped shape modern America. As Tracey and Cynthia’s sons, Jason and Chris, inherit the fallout of a broken system, their anger and desperation erupt. Gripping and profoundly resonant, Sweat is a story of loyalty, loss, and the unrelenting fight for survival in an unforgiving world.

Set Designer

Francis O’Connor

Events

Past events

10 - 23 Jul, 2026

The Importance of Being Earnest · Garsington Opera

2 - 16 May, 2026

Sweat · Citizens Theatre

About

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