A WORCESTERSHIRE theatre’s reputation as a showcase venue for productions heading to the West End will be further enhanced during the Spring Bank Holiday week.

That’s because Oscar Wilde’s much loved and exhilarating masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, will be coming to Malvern’s Festival Theatre for a week-long run from Monday, May 25.

And what a cast has been lined up to perform Wilde’s superb satire on Victorian manners in what is one of the funniest plays in the English language. The delightful repartee and hilarious piercing of hypocrisy and pomposity still has the ability to make you laugh out loud.

The cast includes Emily Barber, Michael Benz, Philip Cumbus, Imogen Doel, Michele Dotrice and Richard O’Callaghan, who will join David Suchet who is taking on the role of the formidable Lady Bracknell!

Written shortly before Wilde fell foul of society’s unbending condemnation, The Importance of Being Earnest fizzes with wit as he delights in debunking social pretensions.

Two bachelor friends, upper crust dandy Algernon Moncrieff and the most reliable John Worthing JP, lead double lives to court the attentions of the desirable Gwendolyn Fairfax and Cecily Cardew. The gallants must then grapple with the uproarious consequences of their ruse, and with the formidable Lady Bracknell.  David Suchet is one of Britain’s most respected actors on stage, screen and television.  He was awarded the CBE in 2010.

He is probably is best known for his role as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s Poirot and he has recently completed all 74 Poirot TV films which is the whole canon of Agatha Christie’s Poirot stories.

His other television work includes Great Expectations, Richard II, Hidden, Diverted, the award-winning BBC drama Maxwell (for which he won Best Actor International Emmy Award in 2008), The Life of Freud, and many others as well as a host of theatre and film credits such as Effie, The Bank Job, The In-Laws, A Perfect Murder and Executive Decision.

As for the rest of the cast Emily Barber plays Gwendolen Fairfax. Since graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama she has appeared in Billy Liar (Manchester Royal Exchange), Cornelius (Finborough Theatre), The Hired Man, Fiddler on the Roof (National Youth Music Theatre) and Orpheus & Eurydice (National Youth Theatre).

Michael Benz plays John (Jack) Worthing. He has worked on a range of Shakespearean productions including Twelfth Night (Sheffield Theatres and Tour), Hamlet, As You Like It, The Winter's Tale (Shakespeare's Globe), The Tempest (Theatre Royal Haymarket) and Romeo and Juliet (RSC). Other theatre credits include The American Clock, The December Man and Oorah Christopher (Finborough Theatre). Michael played valet Ethan Slade in Downton Abbey, his other television credits include Mike and Angelo, Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Tomorrow People.

Philip Cumbus plays Algernon Moncrieff. and has made multiple appearances in productions at Shakespeare’s Globe including ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, The Macbeth, Much Ado about Nothing, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Romeo & Juliet and The Merchant of Venice.

Other theatre credits include Richard III (Trafalgar Studios), Great Expectations (RSC), 66 Books (Bush Theatre) and The Crucible (Regent’s Park). Philip’s television and radio credits include A Touch OF Frost, My Hero, Hope and Glory and Our Brave Boys.

Imogen Doel plays Cecily Cardew and her theatre credits include The Get Out, Gastronauts, Primetime, Collaboration (Royal Court), In the Vale of Health (Hampstead Theatre), Serpent’s Tooth (Almeida), Notes to Future Self (Birmingham Rep), Marat/Sade and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC). Imogen has also participated in a range of film projects such as Whisper, Music Hall and The Tempest.

Michele Dotrice plays Miss Prism. Michele is perhaps best known for starring opposite Michael Crawford as his long-suffering wife Betty in the much-loved BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do Ave ‘Em.

Her recent theatre work includes When We Are Married (Garrick Theatre), Richard III, Henry V, The Jew Of Malta and Private Lives (RSC).

Over the years Michele has been a regular on our TV screen and her extensive work includes Miss Marple, Big School, Henry IV, A Thing Called Love, The Way We Live Now, The Winslow Boy, The Sextet and Middlemarch. Film credits include Captain Jack, The Witches, And Soon The Darkness and Jane Eyre.

Richard O’Callaghan, who plays Reverend Canon Chasuble, has led a versatile career in film, stage and television, but is perhaps best known for lead roles in the classic Carry On films, Carry On Loving and Carry On at Your Convenience. Other film credits include Galileo, Butley and The Borfors Gun.

On stage, he has previously played the character of Reverend Canon Chasuble at the Regent’s Park Open Theatre, and his extensive list of theatre credits also include Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night (Regent’s Park Open Theatre), Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare’s Globe), Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus (RSC), Amadeus (Haymarket), Flight (National), Three Months Gone, Owners and Macbeth (Royal Court). Television credits include Casualty, Red Dwarf and Dalziel and Pascoe.

The show is being directed by Adrian Noble, who was the Artistic Director of the RSC from 1990-2003, directing numerous productions including The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe (Stratford, Barbican), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Stratford, Barbican and Broadway), The Seagull (Stratford, Barbican) and The Secret Garden (Stratford, London).

Noble’s extensive list of other directing credits includes The Captain of Kopenick for the National, The King’s Speech in the West End, The Tempest, Amadeus, Inherit The Wind and As You Like It as Artistic Director at The Old Globe Theatre (San Diego), and he has also worked in Canada.