I have been involved in amateur dramatics for some time now and have performed in numerous plays. By far my favourite genre is comedy and none better than the plays of Oscar Wilde. Wilde’s humour is funny in a gentle witty manner and forms a sardonic comment on society.
An Ideal Husband is, as is perhaps to be expected, a play about love and marriage. It focuses on the marriage of Sir Robert Chiltern (my part and hence my user name) and his wife, Gertrude. Chiltern’s career and reputation is well established in politics as a leading member of parliament.
However in his early day, Chiltern committed a misdemenour which now returns to haunt him. He is threatened with blackmail and turns to his friend Lord Goring for advice. Lord Goring is a resolute bachelor and womanizer. He is charming, aristocratic, handsome and a smooth talker and has a clear view on marriage, "Other people are quite dreadful. To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." However, women are instinctively drawn towards him vying for his attention and seeking to win him as their husband including the would-be blackmailer, Mrs. Cheveley and Gertrude’s sister, Mabel.
Without giving too much of the plot away, the play develops into a kind of farce with mistaken identities and characters who try to conceal the real reasons behind their actions leading to all kinds of suspicions and assumptions. The characters are wonderfully written with defined and contrasting opinions on society.
The play is full of delicious one-liners typical of Wilde, "I love talking about nothing. It's the only thing I know anything about.", "In the old days, we had the rack. Now we have the press" and "Scandals used to lend charm or interest to a man. Nowadays, they crush him."
The play is available in paperback ISB 0713666870 for £4.49.
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Very good
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