“The truth is rarely pure and never simple,” one of Wilde's characters notes in this witty comedy about double identities. In fact, white lies may be even more problematic when two young men of the British upper class attempt to circumvent inconvenient social commitments by pretending that they must be elsewhere with nonexistent, underprivileged friends. This all comes to a head when their two lives – their "friends" and their fiancées – collide, and their lies become even more desperate, quickly turning into a laughable farce.
