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The Importance of Being Earnest: the tea scene

Convinced they are engaged to the same man, Gwendolen and Cecily turn an offer of tea into a contest neither intends to lose.

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Casting range
Gwendolen 20-28; Cecily 18-25.
Duration
2.81 min
Difficulty
Intermediate
Relationship
Two supposed rivals for the same fiancé
Role balance
balanced
Setting
The garden at the Manor House, Woolton. The tea table has been laid while the two women try to contain their quarrel.
Scene heading
EXT. MANOR HOUSE - GARDEN - AFTERNOON
Content notes
Romantic jealousy & Class snobbery
Language
English
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Scene work

What is playable here

Objective
Force the rival to withdraw her claim to Ernest.
Obstacle
They have to keep up the appearance of polite hospitality.
Relationship
Both believe they are protecting a genuine engagement.
Stakes
Each risks losing both her fiancé and the upper hand in front of the other.
Turn
The sugar and cake make the hostility impossible to disguise.

Playing age 20-28

Gwendolen

Wants: Make Cecily recognise her prior claim to Ernest.

Up against: Cecily controls the hospitality and refuses to feel socially inferior.

Choice prompts

  • Treat the talk about walks and flowers as questions with an opponent to beat.
  • Wait for the taste of the tea to interrupt your control before the accusation.

Playing age 18-25

Cecily

Wants: Defend her engagement while making Gwendolen feel unwelcome.

Up against: Her visitor can turn any courtesy into a judgment about her upbringing.

Choice prompts

  • Know exactly when the invitation to tea becomes a decision to punish her.
  • Keep offering the best manners you can manage while listening for the next insult.
Full script

The Importance of Being Earnest: the tea scene

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EXT. MANOR HOUSE - GARDEN - AFTERNOON

A long pause. Cecily and Gwendolen glare at each other.

Gwendolen

Are there many interesting walks in the vicinity, Miss Cardew?

Cecily

Oh! yes! a great many. From the top of one of the hills quite close one can see five counties.

Gwendolen

Five counties! I don’t think I should like that; I hate crowds.

Cecily

I suppose that is why you live in town?

Gwendolen

Quite a well-kept garden this is, Miss Cardew.

Cecily

So glad you like it, Miss Fairfax.

Gwendolen

I had no idea there were any flowers in the country.

Cecily

Oh, flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London.

Gwendolen

Personally I cannot understand how anybody manages to exist in the country, if anybody who is anybody does. The country always bores me to death.

Cecily

Ah! This is what the newspapers call agricultural depression, is it not? I believe the aristocracy are suffering very much from it just at present. It is almost an epidemic amongst them, I have been told. May I offer you some tea, Miss Fairfax?

Gwendolen

Thank you. Detestable girl! But I require tea!

Cecily

(Sweetly.)

Sugar?

Gwendolen

No, thank you. Sugar is not fashionable any more.

Cecily looks angrily at her, takes up the tongs and puts four lumps of sugar into the cup.

Cecily

Cake or bread and butter?

Gwendolen

Bread and butter, please. Cake is rarely seen at the best houses nowadays.

Cuts a very large slice of cake, and puts it on the tray.

Cecily

Hand that to Miss Fairfax.

Merriman does so, and goes out with footman. Gwendolen drinks the tea and makes a grimace. Puts down cup at once, reaches out her hand to the bread and butter, looks at it, and finds it is cake. Rises in indignation.

Gwendolen

You have filled my tea with lumps of sugar, and though I asked most distinctly for bread and butter, you have given me cake. I am known for the gentleness of my disposition, and the extraordinary sweetness of my nature, but I warn you, Miss Cardew, you may go too far.

Cecily

To save my poor, innocent, trusting boy from the machinations of any other girl there are no lengths to which I would not go.

Gwendolen

From the moment I saw you I distrusted you. I felt that you were false and deceitful. I am never deceived in such matters. My first impressions of people are invariably right.

Cecily

It seems to me, Miss Fairfax, that I am trespassing on your valuable time. No doubt you have many other calls of a similar character to make in the neighbourhood.

Public domain

Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest · Act 2; tea scene; cut by blablabla · 1899 three-act text; Project Gutenberg #844, 1997 transcription

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