The Importance of Being Oscar – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford

Writer: Micheál Liammóir

Director: Tom Neill

Reviewer: Ann Bawtree

The Public Reviews Rating:

Directed and acted by Alastair Whatley “The Importance of Being Oscar” is a one man tour de force lasting over a period of nearly two hours. The play was originally written sixty years ago, when homosexuality was still illegal, and more than sixty years after the trial of Oscar Wilde for what were then sexual offences. The work must have been instrumental in making Wilde’s work more acceptable than it had been in some quarters, presenting the author and artist as it does as a fully human person. This production, commissioned by the South Hill Park Arts Centre in 2009, is introduced in the programme as an “exhibition of the work of art that is Oscar Wilde” and takes us through the whole of Wilde’s adult life.

Alastair Whatlely plays all the characters who appear in the story of Wilde’s life and also as the narrator, appearing first, in nondescript shirt and trousers and gradually donning various waistcoats, jackets, dressing gowns and overcoats and acquiring props, including the famous green carnation, throughout the evening. The words come pouring out, rather too fast at the beginning but settling into a pace which suits both the tone of the play and the ear of the audience. There are scenes from Wilde’s plays including the famous interview between Lady Bracknell and poor Mr Worthing and we hear several of the poems which help to illustrate Wilde’s life. The play does not end with Oscar in prison although the “De Profundis” scene brings home his despair and desolation, as does “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”. Before his death in Paris we see him bounce back, almost Tigger-ish to be received by his faithful friends and admirers, if not by society as a whole.

Victoria Spearing’s set is of a darkened attic filled with the sort of articles one would quite like to find in ones own attic, a horn gramophone, a set of antique golf clubs, a leather button back Edwardian office chair and a tailor’s dummy handily wearing some of Fiona Davis’ dashing costumes. Characters make their appearance in the form of large, faded photographs and in one case, a floor mop and atmospheric scene changes are effected by projection on to the brick wall of the interior gable end, these designed by Alan Valentine. Music plays a part throughout, loudly at first as rap places us in the here and now, then more subtly, and Copland transports us to America.

This is a play not only for all lovers of Wilde’s work but also makes a good and comprehensive introduction for anyone who is not so familiar. Alastair Whately admits, in the programme notes, that the part is “heartbreakingly sad and exhausting” to perform as he transports the audience through the highs and lows of this most fascinating and talented character.