Sir Stephen Fry cast in The Importance of Being Earnest West End show
Sir Stephen Fry has been cast as Lady Augusta Bracknell in the National Theatre's The Importance of Being Earnest production when it moves to the Noël Coward Theatre in London from September.
Sir Stephen Fry is "delighted" to have been cast in The Importance of Being Earnest - a show that "changed [his] life".
The 67-year-old actor is playing the "formidable" Lady Augusta Bracknell in the National Theatre's production of the 1895 Oscar Wilde play at Noël Coward Theatre, London, from September 18, 2025, to January 10, 2026.
The Importance of Being Earnest - a "Trivial Comedy for Serious People" - sees Jack Worthing use the name "Earnest" to lead a double life, and his friend Algernon Moncrieff takes on a similar facade.
Jack and Algernon try to impress two young ladies, but the gentlemen find themselves caught in a web of lies they must carefully navigate.
Stephen's character - Lady Bracknell, whose nephew is Algernon - is a fashionable and respectable woman, and she insults everyone she meets.
She is more worried about boosting her social and financial status than with creating grounded, relational connections.
Lady Bracknell angers the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest because she blocks Jack's engagement to Gwendolen Fairfax.
Speaking about the role of Lady Bracknell - who was played by Dame Judi Dench in the 2002 film adaptation - Stephen said: "I was delighted to be asked by Max Webster to join his jubilant National Theatre production and play the formidable Lady Bracknell in the West End.
"Oscar Wilde has been a hugely important figure in my life and career, and The Importance of Being Earnest is a play that changed my life when I first saw it aged 10.
"It made me understand what language can do and absolutely transported me.
"Wilde is a beacon to people who still believe in open thinking and adventuring with the mind and spirit."
As well as Stephen, who joins Ollie Alexander (Algernon Moncrieff), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Jack Worthing), Hugh Dennis (Reverend Canon Chasuble), Shobna Gulati (Miss Prism), Kitty Hawthorne (Gwendolen Fairfax), Jessica Whitehurst (Cecily Cardew), Hayley Carmichael (Merriman/Lane) have all been cast.
Award-winning director Max said of the show: "Oscar Wilde was a master of elegance, rebellion, and razor-sharp wit. With this cast – led by the audacious brilliance of Olly Alexander, the hugely captivating Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and the legendary Stephen Fry as Lady Bracknell – we’re embracing the play’s subversive heart in a way that feels utterly now.
"I’d like to think Wilde would be delighted – and perhaps even a little scandalised – by this bold, joyful take on his most iconic comedy."
Tickets for The Importance of Being Earnest are available now at nationaltheatre.org.uk.
