Jessica Whitehurst on starring in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'

It’s not every actor who can go toe-to-toe with the legendary Stephen Fry, but in the hit play The Importance of Being Earnest, Jessica Whitehurst is doing just that.

Summary

• Jessica Whitehurst is starring in The Importance of Being Earnest
• Max Webster's bold staging also stars Olly Alexander and Stephen Fry
• Last year Whitehurst played Roxanne in Cyrano at the Park Theatre

At the end of last year, Jessica Whitehurst starred in a gender-flipped version of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Park Theatre, playing the beautiful and intellectual Roxanne opposite Virginia Gay's hopeless wordsmith Cyrano. Now she is enchanting audiences as Cecily in Max Webster's bold and giddily subversive staging of The Importance of Being Earnest.

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How are you enjoying your time with Earnest?
Oh, my gosh, it feels like a beautiful dream going into that theatre every day. It’s such an incredible learning experience in every way. I think I’ve made a home in [my character] Cecily and I’m so thankful to her and to this whole experience. Me and Kitty, who plays Gwendolyn, always say before every show, “this is the greatest job in the world” — and I think we’re really feeling it.

It must be like doing a masterclass in acting and comedy at the same time. What have you learned?
I am so lucky to be on that stage with every single one of the cast because I’m learning so much from them just being in their presence. We’ve created this gorgeous sense of the stage as our fun zone. It is our safe place and that lets the audiences re-engage in this classic story because you can see we’re just having fun. I’m learning, especially from Hugh Dennis [who plays Reverend Canon Chasuble], that every show is a new game of sport. You go into the arena every day and expect something different. Every single performer has a different take on the comedy — and not just the comedy but the story and each other’s characters. It lets every performer dive into it in their own way. It’s a joy to watch and I’m learning a lot.

You recently played Roxanne in Virginia Gay’s bold reimagining of Cyrano de Bergerac. Tell us about it.
It’s an experience I will always hold close to my heart. Roxanne meant a lot to me. I always said I wanted to leave the show a little bit more like her, and I feel blessed to have had that. I’ve got a little bit of her with me. We started on the fringe, where everyone loves theatre and is so excited to see the story, and we didn’t fully realise the effect we were having. It is a beautiful story people need to hear. Every person brought so much of their own essence and even reading it instantly, I heard it in my voice. That will always be special to me. God, I love that play.

In both Cyrano and Earnest, you have shown a gift for bringing a classic to life with a contemporary feel. How do you approach text and language?
My first thing is to approach it with curiosity. I try not to linger in fear because as soon as you hear “classics” it can make you have an opinion straight away, but I lead with feeling. Classics are still relevant because these feelings are universal. And secretly, I’m a grammar geek. I love the grammar, and with classics it’s always purposeful. I lead with feeling and then technically I dig in. I work until I can work no more, then I let myself go on stage and forget every bit of that work because it’s there in me.

What roles do you want to tackle next?
What attracts me to roles is seeing whether I can bring something of myself or an experience of my own. Roles that challenge society’s castings are important to me. Being a woman from south London, I wear that like a badge of honour. It’s never lost on me that I fell in love with what I do by seeing people who looked and sounded like me do it. I’d love to play an antagonist. I’d love to play someone where I can go in and question, how did they get to this place?

What are you looking forward to in 2026?
First of all I’m excited to start the year finishing Earnest. I think 2026 is a year I’m devoting to my career, putting in the work and collaborating. Our industry is important right now because stories are being told by new voices, and even with classics new voices are telling them. Maybe in 2026 it’s my time to tell some stories of my own.

Book The Importance of Being Earnest tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the January 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Jessica Whitehurst. Inset: Kitty Hawthorne and Whitehurst in The Importance of Being Earnest. (Photo by Marc Brenner)