“Wilde’s wit has always dazzled me,” Drake said in an earlier statement. “But what motivated me to mount Earnest at this particular time in history is the way his humor and insight intertwines with the plot’s core — romantic love versus the institution of marriage. With Marriage Equality now the law of the land in the U.S., as well as the skyrocketing dialogue on gender identification — by flipping all the actors’ traditional genders in the roles (which has often been done with the role of Lady Bracknell) — I wanted to take a page from the play’s cross-gender casting history, and completely expand it to make Wilde’s homage to romance as relevant to today’s audiences as it was to the play’s first audiences of over one-hundred years ago. And what better place to do that but in the birthplace of modern American Theater, Provincetown!”

The cast includes Tony Jackman as Lady Bracknell, Anne Stott as Jack/Earnest, Alexandra Foucard as Algernon, Scott Cunningham as Gwendolyn, Michael Burke as Cecily, Bragan Thomas as Miss Prism, Sallie Tighe as Reverend Chasuble, Alison Hyder as Lane and Connie Tavanis as Merriman.

The Provincetown Theater is located at 238 Bradford Street, Provincetown, MA. Tickets are available by visiting Provincetowntheater.org or by calling the box office at (508) 487-7487.