Lady Bracknell

One big dramatic role. Actors who have all played that character tell us what the role means and what it means to them. This time: Lady Bracknell, from Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

Oscar Wilde’s formidable grande dame from The Importance of Being Earnest is one of theatre’s great comic creations. A guardian of class, wealth and respectability, she can silence a room with a single pronouncement. Dame Sian Phillips admits her fear of taking on a role so indelibly defined by Dame Edith Evans. Lifelong lover of the writing of Oscar Wilde, Gyles Brandreth tells us why The Importance of Being Earnest is endlessly open to reinvention. Gillian Bevan explores the role through a 1950s-set production, while Sharon D Clarke was in the National Theatre’s hugely popular revival, directed by Max Webster. And the baritone Henry Waddington describes playing Lady Bracknell in Gerald Barry’s audacious operatic adaptation at Garsington Opera, where Wilde’s grande dame becomes a startling, almost dictatorial force.

Producer: KIrsten Locke
BBC Audio Bristol

The National Theatre's The Importance of Being Earnest
with contribution from Sharon D Clarke as Lady Bracknell and Hugh Skinner as Jack Worthing.
Available to watch in select international cinemas via National Theatre Live https://theimportanceofbeingearnest.ntlive.com/ and to stream worldwide on National Theatre at Home https://www.ntathome.com/the-importance-of-being-earnest
BBC Archive:
Radio 4, The Importance of Being Earnest [Centenary Production] featuring Dame Judi Dench as Lady Bracknell, Michael Sheen and Martin Clunes
World Theatre: The Importance of Being Earnest (1951)John Worthing..Sir John Gielgud Lady Bracknell..Dame Edith Evans Algernon Moncrieff.....Ronald Ward