By Helene Clehr

If your name is Earnest, does that make you earnest? If you aren't earnest, can you still be named Earnest? In a totally vapid world, does it matter if you're earnest, or Earnest, at all?

Can audiences laugh and think at the same time, whatever their names?

They will when "The Importabce of Being Earnest" opens at the Goode Theatre on Feb. 14.

Oscar Wilde's comedy of confusion is one the smartest plays ever written, and one of the funniest. As characters lose themselves in mistaken identities and idiotic mishaps, the audience loses itself in head riddles and gut laughter.

No playwright has ever created wittier lines for the stage. "The Importance of Being Earnet" s a tongue twister for the mind that, unlike the human brain, only gets better with age.

"The Importance Of Being Earnest" opens on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 7:30 pm in the Goode Theatre, located at 4601 Monarch Way. Other shows will be held February 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, and 24 at 7:30 pm, with a matinee Feb. 25 at 2 pm.

Tickets may be purchased in advance at www.ODUArtsTix.com or by contacting the Box Office at 757-683-5305. Box Office hours are Monday-Friday 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Free parking is available in Garage D, 1060 W 45th St.