Fiction & other works · 1893 · play

A Woman of No Importance

by Oscar Wilde

A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde is "a new and original play of modern life", in four acts, first given on 19 April 1893 at the Haymarket Theatre, London. Like Wilde's other society plays, it satirises English upper-class society. It has been revived from time to time since his death in 1900, but has been widely regarded as the least successful of his four drawing room plays. Wilde's first West End drawing room play, Lady Windermere's Fan, ran at the St James's Theatre for 197 performances in 1892. He briefly moved away from the genre to write his biblical tragedy Salome, after which he accepted a request from the actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree for a new play for Tree's company at the Haymarket Theatre. Wilde worked on it while staying in Norfolk in the summer, and later in a rented flat in St James's, impeded by constant interruptions by Lord Alfred Douglas. Tree accepted the finished play in October 1892. The leading female role, Mrs Arbuthnot, was intended for Madge Kendal, but for contractual reasons she withdrew and was replaced by Mrs Bernard Beere. The play was first performed on 19 April 1893 at the Haymarket Theatre, London...

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