Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...For while “The Importance of Being Earnest” might look like an elitist comedy of manners, it is a play that oozes subtext and that mocked the original audience by revealing all that they would have held dear (class, parentage, social standing, the privilege of the patriarchy) to be malleable, purloined and, in the final analysis, arbitrary."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...It has been well over a century since Oscar Wilde penned "The Importance of Being Earnest," his linguistically intoxicating comedy of manners, social class pretensions, the differences between the sexes, the ways of city versus country life, and the essential pleasure of having a muffin with your tea. But he remains the undisputed master mixologist of art and artifice."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a towering text of the English language. Wilde's wry wordplay is wonderful, but the play also has a conscience by uncloaking many abhorrent absurdities of British Victorian society via clever and callow laughs."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...This sort of epic triviality is exactly what we need right now. And Writers mostly pulls it off. The play moves along with wit and style. The actors read their lines as if they were speaking naturally, not reciting epigrams that have been repeated a million times—which is hard to do."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Drawing Room comedies are difficult to pull off. Most theater companies avoid them completely as they require actors and a director who truly understand what makes them work. Writers Theatre and its artistic director Michael Halberstam have proven over and over that they are in fact the premium venue for these types of productions and continue to do so with their revival of Oscar Wilde’s classic piece “The Important of Being Earnest”. This play has been called “one of the cleverest comedies ever written by one of the greatest writers in the English Language”. Writers has waited a long time to get this on their stage and based on what Director Halberstam says, when the perfect cast is found, that is the time to grace the stage with what might be called the perfect comedy."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Halberstam’s production is truly funny and his cast is excellent. Each actor captures the flavor and pretentious affectation of Wilde’s characters. Steve Haggard, who becomes better with each role he undertakes, is particularly wonderful as Algernon. This is a role he was born to play. Haggard’s casual posture and mannerisms and subtle vocal acrobatics must be what Oscar Wilde imagined when writing this role. Mr. Haggard casually spits out clever bon mots as effortlessly as he munches cucumber sandwiches and muffins. Steve Haggard opens the play casually conversing with Lane, his proper manservant, played with delectably dry wit by Ross Lehman. Tossing his long, curly locks, the handsome, Mr. Haggard makes an impishly impulsive and likable Algernon."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...“The Importance of Being Earnest” marked the climax of Wilde’s career just before a famous sex scandal ruined him. He died in disgrace at the age of only 44, five years after the play opened in 1895 to great acclaim. It’s painful to speculate on how many scintillating comedies he could have written if he had not been destroyed by his personal life. But he did leave us “The Importance of Being Earnest,” maybe the greatest comedy of its kind in the last 150 years. What we have missed we will never know. What survives is a masterpiece."
The Hawk Chicago - Recommended
"...Yet, all in all, this production succeeds where so many others have failed because it presents Wilde’s satircal play sincerely and seriously (which, ironically, may be two of Wilde’s least favorite traits). Props to Writer’s Theatre for recognizing the vital importance of playing this script earnestly."
Chicago Theater and Arts - Recommended
"...Even though the set and costumes set the Victorian period and the mannerisms of Oscar Wilde's witty take down of English high society was time appropriate, so many of his comments continue to hit the mark on social climbing and pseudo intellectualism today that 'The Importance of Being Earnest' is still a joy to watch."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Artistic director Michael Halberstam is at the top of his game in his presentation of Oscar Wilde’s late nineteenth century classic “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Punctuated smartly by two intermissions, this farcical comedy offers three increasingly silly acts that culminate in a completely satisfying and surprisingly visual culmination where the color green (perhaps a shout out to Wilde’s native Ireland?) links everything together like an assortment of mixed nuts."