Written by Oscar
Wilde
Directed by Jonathan
Church
Classic Spring
Theatre Company
Recorded in a 2018
live performance at the Vaudeville Theatre, London
Broadcast on Foxtel
Arts
Reviewed by Len Power 13 April 2020
First produced on the London stage in 1895, Oscar Wilde’s
play, ‘An Ideal Husband’
cleverly weaves a story of blackmail and political
corruption with anti-upper class sentiments and the question of public and
private honour.
Sir Robert Chiltern, a prominent politician is preparing to
expose a financial scandal but a woman, Mrs Cheveley, who has invested heavily
in the shady venture threatens to uncover a damaging secret in the politician's
past if he exposes the speculation as a fraud. Sir Robert turns for help to his friend Lord
Goring, an apparently idle philanderer and the despair of his father.
Nicely directed by Jonathan Church in 2018 for the Classic
Spring Theatre Company live onstage at the Vaudeville Theatre in London, this
is a fine production of Wilde’s classic play.
As the scheming Mrs Cheveley, Frances Barber expertly gives her
character a sophisticated surface charm while showing the darker, calculating
woman underneath. While her behaviour is
reprehensible it’s clear that society’s attitudes are much to blame for her
actions.
Nathaniel Parker as the troubled Sir Robert Chiltern also
gives a fine performance as the upstanding politician in a moral dilemma. Freddie Fox is a delight as Viscount Goring, a
young man about town who ultimately displays an unexpected strength of
character.
It was good to see Edward Fox on stage in the role of the
Earl of Caversham, Viscount Goring’s father.
In real life he actually is Freddie Fox’s father. His skill at playing characters in this
period is wonderful to watch. His sense
of timing is superb.
There was excellent work by everyone in the large cast
including Sally Bretton as a charming but morally inflexible Lady Chiltern,
Faith Omole as Mabel Chiltern and Susan Hampshire as Lady Markby.
It was a nice touch to have Samuel Martin playing
atmospheric violin interludes before the curtain during the scene changes and
the period settings by Simon Higlett are sumptuous.
Together with ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, ‘An Ideal
Husband’ is often considered Wilde's dramatic masterpiece. After Earnest, it is his most popularly
produced play.
Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast
on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘In the Foyer’ program on Mondays and Wednesdays at
3.30pm.
‘Theatre of Power’, a regular podcast
on Canberra’s performing arts scene with Len Power, can be heard on Spotify,
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