Life is Serious (Bunbury)

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Bunbury) is a dazzling comedy about double lives, invented identities, and the power of societal facades. Jack and Algernon invent alter egos to escape the constraints of everyday life—yet the game of lies and deception spirals out of control. While Gwendolen and Cecily have clear ideas about love and morality, gender roles and truths begin to crumble. In the end, the question remains: How serious is life when it’s ultimately about getting the right form?

Elfriede Jelinek’s adaptation of the material lends the classic a radical contemporary relevance. With sharp wit and deconstruction, she exposes societal conventions, gender roles, and the construction of reality. The staging by Susi Weber, a coproduction with the Stadttheater Bruneck, blends lightness with depth, showing how much we shape the world to fit our own needs.

Featuring Michael-Lorenz Brandner as Jack Worthing, Ludwig Wendelin Weißenberger as Algernon Moncrieff, and Wiltrud Schreiner in the iconic role of Lady Bracknell, whose sharp tongue and unyielding morality expose society’s hypocrisies. Katharina Gerlich and Leonie Berner embody the self-assured Gwendolen and Cecily, whose demands on life and love put the gentlemen’s game to the test.