Streetcar Co. to present a comedy classic this weekend

LACONIA — The Streetcar Company will help kick off the holiday season with a night of laughs as its actors and behind-the-scenes crew bring Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” to the stage this weekend.

Set at the turn of last century, the play follows the adventures of two friends, men about town Algernon “Algy” Moncrieff and Jack Worthing. When Algy discovers that Jack has been pretending to have a ne’er-do-well younger brother named Ernest in order to escape from his quiet country estate to the sordid night life of London, he decides to assume the persona of Ernest himself to wreak some mischief on Jack’s highly ordered world. Meanwhile, Jack has plans to propose to the love of his life, Gwendolyn Fairfax — if he can only get around her battle axe of a mother. There’s just one problem … Gwendolyn thinks he’s Ernest, and has no idea about his true identity.

The mishaps, missteps, and cases of mistaken identity that ensue make for raucous laughs.

The Streetcar Company, the Lakes Region’s longest-running community theater group, will perform “The Importance of Being Earnest” in the auditorium at Laconia High School on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2, at 7 p.m., with a matinee on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 3, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door; top hats and tails are optional.