The Secret Lives of Canon Chasuble and Miss Prism

While others are preoccupied with cucumber sandwiches and railway cloakrooms, two minor characters from The Importance of Being Earnest are up to their necks in something else. A country rector and a governess, models of Victorian propriety in public. But in private? This is the play behind the play: a tale of blackmail, false identity … and money.

The play – a subversive re-imagining of two minor characters in The Importance of Being Earnest – was a hugely popular and critical success as part of the 2016 Tiger Dublin Fringe. The Sunday Independent called it “Wickedly, side-splittingly funny, in a sophisticated, witty and elegant way…a joyous romp not to be missed, a worthy homage to its master and progenitor” and the Irish Times – giving it four stars – said the play “packs extraordinary amounts of plot and top-notch gags into a compact package”.

Written and performed by Norton & White, the play was developed as part of the Show in a Bag initiative of the Irish Theatre Institute, Fishamble: The New Play Company and Tiger Dublin Fringe. In nominating the initiative for their Special Award for 2016, The Irish Times Theatre Awards judges said it “has enabled the production of outstanding work such as, in the last year, To Hell in a Handbag”.

For more information see www.2hellinahandbag.com

“★ ★ ★ ★”– The Irish Times

“Wickedly, side-splittingly funny …a joyous romp not to be missed”– Sunday Independent