Taranaki Herald - Wednesday, June 5, 1895

FINDING "ILE" IN SUMMERLAND.

Some controversy has arisen in the theatrical world as to what ought to be done with Mr Oscar Wilde's plays in existing circumstances. "The Importance of Being Earnest," which was having a very successful run at the St. James's, in spite of its trivial character, is still being played, although the name of the author has been struck out of the playbills. Some of the critics consider that an unsatisfactory state of things, and are calling for its complete withdrawal; but the answer of the manager is that such a course would throw a number of people out of work, and that as the public continues to take an interest in the play itself of a purely normal kind—the audiences being much what they have been in the past—there is no need to consider the personality of the author. However, in the case of one or two plays of Wilde's, which had been been connected for—and one of which, I believe, was written—the contracts have been repediated off hand, and it is pretty certain that no court of law would ever make them good.