 Wilde hesitated about submitting the script to Alexander , worrying that it might be unsuitable for the St James 's Theatre , whose typical repertoire was relatively serious , and explaining that it had been written in response to a request for a play " with no real serious interest " . When Henry James 's Guy <unk> failed , Alexander turned to Wilde and agreed to put on his play . Alexander began his usual meticulous preparations , <unk> the author on each line and planning stage movements with a toy theatre . In the course of these rehearsals Alexander asked Wilde to shorten the play from four acts to three . Wilde agreed and combined elements of the second and third acts . The largest cut was the removal of the character of Mr. <unk> , a solicitor who comes from London to arrest the <unk> " Ernest " ( i.e. , Jack ) for his unpaid dining bills . Algernon , who is posing as " Ernest " , will be led away to Holloway <unk> unless he settles his accounts immediately . Jack finally agrees to pay for Ernest , everyone thinking that it is Algernon 's bill when in fact it is his own . The four @-@ act version was first played on the radio in a BBC production and is still sometimes performed . Peter <unk> argues that the three @-@ act structure is more effective , and that the shorter original text is more theatrically <unk> than the expanded published edition . 
