This poster advertises the original date intended for the opening of Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest at London's St. James's Theatre, Tuesday 12 February 1895. Since several cast members were suffering from colds, the opening was delayed until Thursday, 14th. That was to prove a momentous night for Wilde despite the play's brilliant reception, since it was then that the Marquess of Queensberry delivered his 'bouquet' of turnips and carrots for Wilde, in disgust at his son Lord Alfred Douglas's relationship with the playwright. The evening began at 8.30pm with Langdon Mitchell's one-act 'curtain-raiser' In The Season, with Wilde's play at 9.00. George Alexander, who played John Worthing, had insisted that Wilde condensed his original four act play into three acts, to accommodate the 'curtain-raiser'.

The poster is illustrated with an image of a Yeoman of the Guard, dressed in the distinctive Tudor uniform that marks the foundation of the guard by King Henry Vlll in the 15th century. The actor-manager George Alexander introduced the image for his programmes and posters when he became the theatre's lessee in January 1891, because of the theatre's name and proximity to St. James's Palace, guarded by the order. Alexander introduced an even more colourful pictorial image for his theatre programmes in 1895 - a lithograph produced by Mardon's of Bristol featuring a reversed image of the Yeoman standing next to a roundel depicting St. James's Palace from the park and in front of the Tower of London. The figure shown on the poster does not wear the cross-belt adopted by the regiment and is dressed as a Yeoman Warder (or 'Beefeater'), the guards of the Tower.