An Ideal Husband

Wilde, Oscar
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (b. Dublin, 1854) was an Irish playwright, who wrote one of the best loved comedies in the English language - The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). A leading wit and conversationalist in London society, his career was destroyed at its height when he was imprisoned for homosexual offences. Wilde was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Magdalen College, Oxford. Settling in London, he became famous for his extravagant dress, long hair, and paradoxical views on art, literature, and morality. His first play, Vera (1880), a tragedy about Russian nihilists, was produced in New York to poor reviews. Success in the theatre came with the elegant drawing-room comedy Lady Windermere's Fan. A Woman of No Importance (1893) was another success. Other works for the theatre were An Ideal Husband (1895) and the biblical Salomé (1896), written in French for Sarah Bernhardt. Wilde flaunted his homosexual affairs, including his ill-fated liaison with Lord Alfred Douglas. Following a celebrated trial in 1895 he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour. The sentence led to public humiliation, poor health, and bankruptcy. On his release in 1897 he left for France and remained in exile there until his death in 1900. Jackson, Russell
Russell Jackson is Emeritus Professor of Drama at the University of Birmingham, UK. His books include The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film (CUP, 2nd edition 2007), Shakespeare Films in the Making: Vision, Production and Reception (CUP, 2007) and Shakespeare and the English-speaking Cinema (OUP, 2014). He has worked closely in rehearsal with actors and directors as text consultant on many theatre and film productions. These have included Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare productions on stage and radio and film, and stage productions by Michael Grandage in Sheffield and London.

An ideal Christmas play and a play for all seasons. Sunday Times, John Peter, 23/12/2007 'Hugely entertaining, a curious mixture of melodrama, Wilde's distinctinve epigrammatic wit and sudden moments of deeper feeling' Daily Telegraph - Charles Spencer, 11.11.10 'Oscar Wilde's ability to satirise the hollowness of our social and political life remains remarkably undimmed... it resonates with a loud topical ring considering the various antic today's MPs have been up to when filling out their expense sheets' Daily Express - Paul Callan, 12.11.10 'Energetically entertaining - a glossy melodrama...studded with smart lines and, more surprisingly, imbued with humanity' Evening Standard - Henry Hitchings, 12.11.10 'A shrewd depiction of naked ambition and a serious debate about what really constitutes goodness' Financial Times - Sarah Hemming, 12.11.10 'A masterwork of good-humoured, charitable insight into human frailty' Independent - Paul Taylor, 12.11.10 'A play which smuggles subtlety in under farce and melodrama' Observer - Susannah Clapp, 14.11.10 'A fascinating, psychologically penetrating study of the pursuit of power and the cost of success... A work that shows Wilde at his most wittily serious and subversively moral' Sunday Times - Christopher Hart, 14.11.10 'a play that flirts with melodrama. dabbles with farce and in which the emotionally remote upper classes are brought down to earth' Jewish Chronicle - John Nathan, 19.11.10 'An Ideal Husband' fizzes with wit, reverence and daring' Sunday Express - Mark Shenton, 21.11.10

An ideal Christmas play and a play for all seasons. Sunday Times, John Peter, 23/12/2007