Antrim Playhouse opened its 2026-27 season this month with Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Andrew Greenway, and the run continues through Sunday, November 22, at the Manse Barn, 32 Old Tappan Road in Tappan. It is the first of four mainstage productions the company has scheduled for the season in its 100-seat Tappan home.

The play

Wilde's 1895 comedy follows Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, two young men who each keep a second identity as a way around the expectations of polite society. When both fall in love, the invented selves collide, and the plot runs on mistaken identities, outrageous revelations and a great many cucumber sandwiches. The company bills it as a comedy about love, marriage and the absurdity of social convention.

The company behind it

Antrim Playhouse dates from 1936, when a group of college students began performing in the basement of the Airmont School under the name the Antrim Players, borrowed from nearby Lake Antrim. In 1940 the troupe took over a former community clubhouse on Spook Rock Road in Suffern, and in the 1950s it moved to a converted Dutch barn in the woods of Wesley Hills, which members bought outright in 1953. The company describes itself as the longest-running community theater in Rockland County.

Two of its alumni went on to national careers: Fred Gwynne, later of The Munsters and My Cousin Vinny, performed there in 1947, and Tyne Daly, of Cagney and Lacey, in 1957. Daly has said in interviews that watching her parents work made her certain of acting by about age eight, and that she could not wait to get to the Antrim Playhouse.

The move to Tappan is recent. Antrim leased the historic Manse Barn in partnership with the First Reformed Church of Tappan, spent a year renovating it, and reopened in April 2024 with a flexible 100-seat performance space and new lighting and sound. The barn sits on Old Tappan Road in the historic center of the hamlet.

The rest of the season

After Earnest, the company has scheduled The Cottage by Sandy Rustin, directed by Donal Lehane, from February 19 through March 7, 2027; the musical Annie from April 2 through 25, 2027; and Debouché, a new play by Tom and Maureen Lambrix set on a wine tour in Avignon, from May 21 through 30, 2027. Flex subscription passes covering the season are sold alongside single tickets.

How to go

The Importance of Being Earnest runs through November 22 at the Manse Barn, 32 Old Tappan Road, Tappan. Explore Rockland lists the Saturday, November 14, performance at 8 p.m. Single tickets and the full performance calendar are at antrimplayhouse.com, where the Buy Tickets link opens the company's online box office; the theater's phone is 845-533-5616.

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