The Trials of Oscar Wilde, St James Theatre - theatre review

John Gorick plays Oscar Wilde as calm and controlled, always with the hint of a self-assured smile on his face
On trial: John Gorick as Oscar Wilde
William Moore11 July 2014

Written by Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland and John O’Connor, The Trials of Oscar Wilde covers in detail the two court cases which led to the writer’s imprisonment in 1895 for acts of “gross indecency” with men.

The first trial was Wilde’s lawsuit against Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel after Queensberry left a poorly spelt note for Wilde accusing him of being a “somdomite”. The Marquess was not going down without a fight since he had personal stake in the allegation: Wilde had been meeting regularly with Queensberry’s son, Alfred Douglas, in secret liaisons.

Wilde found his own canon of work read back to him by Queensberry’s lawyer, Edward Carson, dissecting his phrases in search of homosexual subtext. Also read were his letters to male acquaintances which are ripe with homoeroticism – “those red-roseleaf lips of yours”, for example. And then there’s his indecorous love of all things “Greek”…

When Wilde’s defence of his own writing as “beautiful nonsense” went unheeded, he was then arrested and moved into a second trial on charges of sodomy.

William Kempsell and Rupert Mason skilfully portray an array of supporting characters in Peter Craze’s competent yet static production while John Gorick plays Wilde as calm and controlled, always with the hint of a self-assured smile on his face (that is, until the tide starts to turn against him).

Despite the tension of the trial flashes of Wilde’s flippant wit shine through. How, demands Carson, can Wilde not regard his letters to Douglas as extraordinary? “I think everything I write is extraordinary.” Attaboy, Oscar.

Until Saturday (0844 264 2140, stjamestheatre.co.uk)

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