Latest news with #TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest
BBC News
05-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Olly Alexander lands West End role in The Importance of Being Earnest
Singer and actor Olly Alexander has said he has "come into a different space in my life", as he announced a new West End stage role after recently parting ways with his record star will appear in the National Theatre's production of The Importance of Being Earnest when it transfers to the West End in will be his first acting role since It's A Sin, Channel 4's acclaimed 2021 drama about the Aids crisis, for which he was nominated for a Bafta Award."I'd recently been thinking that I'd love to act again," he told BBC News. "I'd come to the end of my record contract, and I have a bit more breathing space to try a few different things and not feel, oh, well I have to deliver an album to my record label." Alexander will take over from Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa, who starred in The Importance of Being Earnest when it opened at the National Theatre in 2024. He will play Algernon when the production transfers to the Noel Coward Theatre in London."What's not to love?" Alexander asked. "It's such a brilliant play, Oscar Wilde's most celebrated comedy. I saw the National production and thought it was fantastic, and this opportunity came along and I jumped at the chance." Alexander shot to fame when his band Years & Years won the BBC Sound of 2015 poll and went on to have hits such as King and Shine, and score a number one later went solo, although continued to perform as Years & Years, and scored another top-charting album in 2021. He has performed with Sir Elton John and Kylie Minogue, and was the UK's Eurovision entrant last after his most recent album Polari, released in February, reached number 17, Alexander announced his departure from his record label."They aren't dropping me, they just aren't renewing my contract," he explained at the time. "It's OK and honestly for the best. I've been on a pretty terrible deal for 10 years. It's time I do something new. But I'll still make music in the future."Reflecting on his first decade as a pop star, Alexander told the BBC: "With music, there's an intensity to the way I've been working and putting albums out, promoting and touring. I definitely want to take the foot off the gas in terms of that intensity." He still occasionally works on music, but has "not been putting pressure on myself... I just do what feels good and feel very lucky that I have this other strand of acting that I'm able to explore".Alexander said he felt he had "learned so much" over the last decade about the way he likes to work. "But for me," he continued, "a lot of the reason I think the [music] industry has changed so much is that it's set on this model which is very antiquated now, and it's not kept pace with the times. "Lots of artists have this direct link with their audience via social media. They want their music out quickly. The whole model of promoting it - three singles into an album, then you tour the album, then move onto the next one - it's not really working like it did."He noted that record labels could historically make an album a success because they were "able to pour a lot of money into something"."They just can't do that now. Everything has changed. But I think that is exciting for lots of reasons, and it is an exciting place for artists, even though it's harder to break through." He concluded: "If I go back into it, it'll be because I think it's fun and something I want to do, and not think too much about how it's going to perform. "That's pretty much how I try to always feel, but you're in an environment where you have a lot of other stakeholders, and people telling you it needs to be this or that, and there's always that tension." For now, he is focusing on performed in 1895, The Importance of being Earnest follows two male friends who adopt fictional personas. The farcical comedy unfolds with mistaken identities and makes generous use of clever wordplay."In a nutshell, it's a comedy about two quite ridiculous young men and the double lives they lead," Alexander explained. "They do that to avoid their social obligations, and they both invent these aliases called Ernest, while they try and woo and marry these two young women. "But really, it's a comedy that skewers society's expectations, makes fun of class and what society expects of us, and what roles we're expected to perform." 'Delightful mischief' The previous production of the show, starring Gatwa, received a positive reception from critics. "There is an elegance to the nudge-wink references and it is a production with just the right amount of delightful mischief," wrote the Guardian's Arifa Akbar in a four-star Daily Mail's Patrick Marmion awarded five stars, describing the "sparkling new production" as a "witty reboot"."Yes, liberties are taken," he said. "But that is surely the best way of blowing the dust off this national treasure."In a three-star review, the Telegraph's Dominic Cavendish described the show as "defiantly bold, but more playful than antagonistic", although he added he wasn't sure the new iteration "adds much" to the original. In the play, nobody except Jack and Algernon know about their alter-egos - something which would be much more difficult to pull off now in an age of smartphones."It'd be impossible!" Alexander laughed. "Our every movement is captured, so there's less room to invent aliases and lead double lives, which in some circumstances is probably for the best. "What's brilliant about the play is it's set 100 years ago, at a time that feels so different to where we are now, but the themes are so timeless."Alexander last appeared in the West End in 2013, before becoming famous as a pop star, with a relatively small role in Peter & Alice alongside Dame Judi Dench. In 2024, Alexander finished in 18th place at Eurovision with his track Dizzy, in a tricky year for the contest which was partly overshadowed by controversy surrounding Israel's year's entrants, girl group Remember Monday, ended in a similar position, finishing 19th. Alexander praised their performance, adding that he "hopes to meet up with them soon and we can exchange stories"."But," he added, "I think I'll still be processing and reflecting [on Eurovision] for a long time." The singer is excited to be returning to the West End, not least because it will mean performing continuously in one venue."I spent a lot of my previous years moving around, touring, which is so fun and amazing," he reflects. "But I also very much appreciate staying in one place now."Having a home in London with my partner, my cats, just trotting off to the theatre every night - that just sounds like the most wonderful existence."
Time of India
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Hazy Angrezi
Bachi Karkaria's Erratica and its cheeky sign-off character, Alec Smart, have had a growing league of followers since 1994 when the column began in the Metropolis on Saturday. It now appears on the Edit Page of the Times of India, every Thursday. It takes a sly dig at whatever has inflated political/celebrity egos, and got public knickers in a twist that week. It makes you chuckle, think and marvel at the elasticity of the English language. It is a shooting-from-the-lip advice column to the lovelorn and otherwise torn, telling them to stop cribbing and start living -- all in her her branded pithy, witty style. LESS ... MORE It's in the news but I'm confused Last weekend, TOI put me in a quandary. Saturday's top edit was called 'The Importance Of Being Earnest'. It wasn't about Wilde's misplaced baby. It was about untamed consequences of international misunderstanding. Deploying examples from military history it conveyed real-time caution to the seven delegations of multi-party MPs who've fanned out to present the truth about Pak-sponsored terrorism. The edit warned that this important attempt to remove any misunderstanding about our position harbours a possibility of the message itself being mis-understood in any of the targeted 33 countries. Ignoring Hindi jihadis – and subtly promoting its own USP – TOI pitched English as the best medium for the message. I'll say 'Three, or rather 33, cheers!' to that. Provided the messengers themselves – 'experienced and articulate' though they are – have been fully briefed not only on What, but more so on How. Why? Because, like truth and Tharoor, English is seldom plain and almost never simple. Then STOI rah-rah-ed Banu Mushtaq's International Booker win. No problem with that. It's the equal applause for the translation that's causing my confusion. Illa, illa, I'm not thoo-thoo-ing Deepa Bhasthi's raw, hybrid English moulded to the contours of colloquial Kannada. I'm all for empire currying the King's angrezi. But then what happens to the previous para's stance? Imagine the Babel if our diplomats start adding their own idiomatic tadka? More to my point, do aforesaid 'global-outreach' MPs have linguistic handlers? Parroting script no can do. Complex questions will demand nuanswers. One misstep could make the whole exercise stumble. Earlier remarks on Col Sofiya further complicate this 'propah-improppur English' business. The MP mantri tried shrugging off a bigoted and sexist slur as a mere 'linguistic mistake'. The SIT will hopefully rubbish this MCP's men-dacity as SC did his non-apology. My question concerns Dr Ali Khan. Call me elitist, but how 'linguistically' equipped are those cops tasked with fine-toothcombing all his past posts written in professorial English? With 'anti-national' the semantic chameleon of our time, I hope no dis-understanding there. *** Alec Smart said: 'Mumbai' metro stations submerged. Undergrounded. ' Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Sky News
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
Dame Edna's glasses sell for 25 times their expected value as auction smashes estimates
A pair of Dame Edna Everage's glasses have sold at auction for £37,800, 25 times their estimated value. The glasses were expected to sell for between £1,000-£1,500, according to Christie's auction house, who facilitated the sale. They were being sold as part of the personal collection of Barry Humphries. Dame Edna was one of Humphries' best-known characters and became a hit in the UK in the 1970s. The Australian star, who was known for his satirical characters including Dame Edna and the offensive Sir Les Patterson, died in April 2023 at the age of 89, following complications suffered during hip surgery. The yellow-lacquered possum spectacles were one of a number of items sold during the auction, which was opened to bidders with Dame Edna's much-loved phrase "Hello Possums". Christie's described the sale as evidence of "Edna's enduring appeal". A first edition of Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest, signed by Wilde to his publisher, sold for £138,600, and a Charles Conder painting sold for almost £240,000. Meanwhile, two dresses worn by Dame Edna sold for £21,420 each, eight times their pre-sale high estimates. A number of other pieces of art, books and highlights of Humphries' collection were also sold during the auction which saw bidders from 41 countries and lasted nine hours. The total sale value reached £4,627,224, exceeding the pre-sale estimate. "These fantastic results are a testament to Barry's unique vision and lifelong passion for collecting," Benedict Winter, head of sale, private & iconic collections at Christie's London said.
