Identity as a game of masks, love as a matter of negotiation, and truth as a social imposition: Oscar Wilde's BUNBURY is a brilliant comedy about double lives—and an astonishingly contemporary satire on self-presentation, role models, and the longing for authenticity.
Jack and Algernon lead double lives to escape the confines of their world. Under the name "Ernst," they both foolishly fall in love with two young women, Gwendolen and Cecily, who find this name irresistible. The gentlemen become entangled in a web of lies, flirtations, and absurd revelations. When the two ladies suddenly meet, the whole game is exposed—and the men must learn that love, identity, and truth are non-negotiable.
But BUNBURY is more than just a comedy of mistaken identity with pointed bon mots: it is a razor-sharp satire on role clichés and the social pressure to be a certain way—especially in the age of Tinder profiles and self-branding. Last but not least, Wilde's social comedy is a play about women who refuse to be blinded. Gwendolen and Cecily charmingly turn the rules of the male world upside down. Between convention, obstinacy, and self-promotion, BUNBURY shows how timeless the search for authenticity is—and how absurd the masks we wear for it are. Intelligent, funny, feminist, and astonishingly topical.
Wilde was a social maverick in a repressive world. His mockery of hypocrisy is still an invitation today to question conventions. And to laugh: at others and at ourselves.
Premiere April 10,
Further performances: April 13, 15, 17, 25, 26, and 28, May 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, and 22, 2026
