''To Hell in a Handbag: The Secret Lives of Canon Chasuble and Miss Prism'' is a 2016 play by the Irish actor/writers Helen Norton and Jonathan White. It deals with two minor characters from

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

’s play ''

The Importance of Being Earnest ''The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious ...

''.

Plot

Much as

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...

did with two of Hamlet's attendant lords in ''

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' is an absurdist, existential tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's ''Hamle ...

'', the play ''To Hell in a Handbag'' explores its protagonists lives when they are not onstage in Wilde's original. Beginning with their walk "to the schools and back" in Wilde’s Act II, we begin to learn how these well-educated but impecunious individuals have survived on the lower rungs of Victorian society. Continuing with their time offstage in Act III, we learn that far from being the models of propriety they appear in public, both have been forced to make ends meet in less than ethical and legal fashion. They find themselves mutually dependent to ensure their survival. But no sooner has ''The Importance'' ended happily, than one of the duo turns the tables on the other.

Productions

''To Hell in a Handbag'' was originally seen in the

Dublin Fringe Festival The Dublin Fringe Festival is an annual curated arts festival in Dublin, Ireland focusing mainly on theatre. The festival allows artists to submit their work via an application which is subsequently reviewed by the programme manager. The festiva ...

in September 2016. Supported by the Show in a Bag initiative of

, Fishamble: The New Play Company and the Irish Theatre Institute, it was premiered at Bewley's Café Theatre on September 14, 2016. In 2017, the production was revived at the original venue before travelling to the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

where it played a sell-out run at the

Assembly Rooms In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there were ...

. It then embarked on a nationwide tour of Ireland. In 2018, the production travelled to England as part of

Culture Ireland Culture Ireland ( ga, Cultúr Éireann) is the Irish State Agency established to promote and advance Irish Arts internationally. It was set up in 2005 and is funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Its b ...

's GB18 initiative, playing right along the southern coast. One of the venues was

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

, the seaside town where Wilde wrote the original play. It was revived again in 2019, playing in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Armagh Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , "Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Pri ...

and

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...

. The first production not featuring its creators was in October 2019. In the Bag Theatre Company staged the play at the Two Sisters Arts Centre in

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northeast of London. His ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

Reception

In its initial runs in Dublin and Edinburgh, the play received a universally positive response. ''The

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' said, "Helen Norton and Jonathan White, actors and writers, have pulled off a coup with their enchanting visit to the outer rim of Oscar Wilde’s ''The Importance of Being Earnest''" and that the play "packs extraordinary amounts of plot and top-notch gags into a compact package". ''The Sunday Independent'' described it as "wickedly, side-splittingly funny, in a sophisticated, witty and elegant way" and "a joyous romp not to be missed, a worthy homage to its master and progenitor". ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' called it a "comic gem" and "a hoot of an instant classic".

References

External links

Official website

Entry in Irish Playography
Irish Theatre Institute
‘Improving’ Oscar Wilde: To Hell in a Handbag
Account of how the play came to be written by Jonathan White {{DEFAULTSORT:To Hell in a Handbag Adaptations of works by Oscar Wilde 2016 plays