A great evening at the theatre enjoy Oscar Wilde’s wit and philosophy of love and equality, a brilliant cast and humorous interludes too. Unmissable!
OUR VERDICT
A country house party in an idyllic Victorian garden, elaborately coiffed and costumed ladies and preening, self-satisfied men, a comic (but pathetic) vicar and elegantly witty conversation in the drawing-room.
The stuff of which social comedy is made. Into this smug conventional situation come two freshly honest voices: Miss Hester Worsley, a young American, and Mrs Arbuthnot, the mother of Gerald, the young man who is smitten with Miss Worsley.
The situation becomes complex as we learn that the most celebrated wit of the party, Lord Illingworth, has a past with Mrs Arbuthnot that she has to confront and deal with for the sake of her son’s future. in 1892, when Wilde was writing, society’s judgement could cast a ‘fallen woman’ on a social scrap heap, while her male seducer went on to success, both sexual and social, as a matter of course.
Wilde’s hatred of the establishment that forced the unjust status quo, and his belief in individual freedom and love of every kind, are at the heart of this classic play. But this is not a heavy social treatise by any means.
Wilde’s sparkling witty aphorisms and paradoxes are in the mouths of his cast of narcissistic, self-important men and trapped women: trapped in marriages, in attempts to entrap or possess men who will validate them socially, and trapped by the need to learn how to placate society’s view of women as creatures of no wisdom and only decorative value.
Between acts, while sets are changed behind the curtain, we’re entertained in front of it by musical ‘turns’ by the great house’s staff and the music hall songs of Roy Hudd as the ancient vicar.
There are some great moments of slapstick: a drunken lascivious politician (Paul Rider) trying and comically failing to perch nonchalantly on the arm of Mrs Arbuthnot’s chair; Will Kelly as Lord Alfred (perhaps an autobiographical reference to Wilde’s dissolute lover?) making a drunkenly disastrous entrance into the garden.
Katy Stephens as Mrs Arbuthnot holds the stage in thrall, her powerful voice and total conviction in the part standing out in a brilliant cast. She is dressed exactly as the character was first seen at the Haymarket Theatre in 1893; I imagine Sarah Bernhardt would have played the part like this. Her delivery of the speech about motherhood in the second act is really memorable.
Tim Gibson as Gerald is a joy to watch: continuously posing like a wonderful caricature of Max Beerbohm, he perfectly portrays the anxious young man, eager to make a good impression despite his immaturity. Lisa Goddard, the dowager ‘fixer’ of the female cast, is chattily snobbish in her good-hearted acceptance of the status quo.
Isla Bair plays Lady Caroline’s range of moods from overbearing bossiness to possessive anxiety about her ageing husband with a sure understanding, and John Bett’s attempts in response to keep his freedom (and his final success in evading her efforts) make us smile. And Mark Meadows is Lord Illingworth, the archetypal cad and hypocrite using a full gamut of sinister charm turning to contemptuous anger.
Venue: Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
Dates: 31st October - 02nd November
Ticket prices: from £25.50 (click here to book)
