St Oscar
By Terry Eagleton
Directed by Eric Venberg
At the Organ Factory, Melbourne, until September 5
Reviewed by Mark Urban and Bronwen Beechey
New Theatre's latest production St Oscar, by well-known British Marxist Terry Eagleton, is a highly entertaining play about the life of Oscar Wilde.
The play deals with the things Wilde is best known for: the plays, such as The importance of being Earnest and Lady Windermere's fan, which satirised the hypocrisies of the 19th-century upper classes; his witty epigrams ("The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about", "I can resist everything except temptation"); his trial and conviction for homosexual behaviour and subsequent exile and lonely death. But it also gives us a look at other aspects of his life — such as the fact that he was Irish by birth, and considered himself a socialist of sorts.
The first occurs just prior to Oscar's trial for sodomy. As Oscar reflects on his success, now threatened, he is interrupted by visits from his mother, an activist for Irish independence, and Richard Wallace, a friend active in the socialist movement, which at the time was going from strength to strength. Oscar's discussions with these visitors reveal him as a contradictory and in many ways unhappy character — torn between his sympathies for the downtrodden and oppressed, and his desire to be accepted by the ruling class that he satirises.
In act two, the trial is recreated. As a music-hall chorus of rent boys testify against him, it becomes clear that his real crime as seen by the ruling class was having it off with the gentry in public — in particular with Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, son of the marquis of Queensberry, although of course Lord Alfred is not required to answer any charges!
Life in jail is unpleasant, and Oscar complains of the stench, the food, the boredom (it seems little has changed in 100 years). He suffers rejection by the spoiled and self-centred Bosie.
When he leaves prison, he goes into self-exile in Italy and then France, where he lives a penniless and alcoholic existence, dying slowly from a combination of drink, the clap and a broken heart.
He meets up with Richard Wallace, who has inherited his father's business ("after all, Engels was a capitalist", he explains defensively) and who, disillusioned by the defeats suffered by the workers' movement, has lost his faith in socialism. Despite his desperate situation, however, Oscar still has faith in the ability of the oppressed to find liberation. Chris Gaffney does a splendid job in bringing Oscar to life. The rest of the cast perform well, although Julie McDonald as Lady Wilde looks much too young to be Oscar's mother. The play also features some lively musical numbers and plenty of Wilde-like, barbed wit.
A play well worth and a reminder that as far as sexual behaviour goes, there are rules for the ruling class and rules for everyone else.