The Trials of Oscar Wilde, Trafalgar Studios

By Helena Payne

For a man who enriched our cultural cannon with some of the most entertaining farces and thoughtful tragedies the world has seen, it seems suitably ironic that perhaps Oscar Wilde’s greatest story was the one in which he played the lead. The Trials of Oscar Wilde at Trafalgar Studio 2 is a new piece of verbatim theatre lovingly sculpted by Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland with John O’Connor dramatising his infamous court cases. Peter Craze’s lean production accentuates how brilliant a wordsmith Wilde was and how words wielded well can yield ultimate power, whilst the slightest of slips can precipitate ruin.

Our fascination with Oscar Wilde’s writing and life does not seem to diminish with time; a gifted poet, playwright and wit I’m sure his work is consistently produced and staged all over the world. I suspect not a day goes by where his words aren’t bringing tears of joy and pain to the eyes of theatrical professionals and audience members alike. There have been many attempts to offer a portrait of the man himself and we must be grateful that at last someone has been intelligent enough to use the man’s own words, as in this production. This is the third reincarnation of The Trials of Oscar Wilde, after a run at the St James’s Theatre and in New York, and that lengthy development process is surely responsible for the confident, slick performance we are treated to at Trafalgar Studio 2.

The production is the closest we can get to standing in that courtroom and the anticipation of the audience that evening surely went some way to equalling the buzz that surrounded the actual trial. In the intimate space, we the audience become the jury as the two actors, Rupert Mason and William Kempsell multi-role with dizzying speed around John Gorick’s uncanny performance as Oscar Wilde. The stage is stark, scenery simple and set basic; just a simple lacquer chair and table strewn with papers and a barrister’s wig denoting the courtly atmosphere. Upstage right hangs a poster for The Importance of being Earnest, the show that saw Wilde reach the zenith of his popularity and success just a hundred days before he was found guilty and sent to prison. Most people are unaware of the particulars of Wilde’s court case but the catalyst, his lover’s father’s writing of a defamatory note, is acted out to recorded extracts of Wilde’s work. It is this bitter accusatory note scrawled on a personal business card that spurs Wilde into defending his name and thus the show begins.

The text weaves gracefully through verbatim court transcripts, recorded extracts from his work, letters, and notes, some which have only recently been unearthed. This effectively showcases the glittering brilliance of Wilde’s work. He answers every accusation with impossible questions, skewering society, the establishment and their feeble morality. Gorick is beguiling, revelling in running rings around his accuser, quoting Shakespeare and always returning to his esteemed Greeks. He patronisingly retorts that the charge of art is to hold a mirror up to nature and its consumers are to be held responsible for what they see in it, effectively implying that his detractors are guilty of the very “crime” they denounce him for. At this point, Wilde is a man with the upper hand; he performs extraordinary linguistic acrobatics for us, much to the fury of Carson the barrister. His intelligence flashes and his pride crackles with such statements as, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple,” and, “I have no knowledge of the ordinary individual.”

Mirroring the dramatic fall from grace in own life, just as Wilde becomes complacent and starts to enjoy his victory Carson begins to get under his skin. A particularly poignant moment is the brutal cross-examination of Wilde’s love letter to his lover Bosie. Gorick invests quiet truth and raw emotion, a world away from his flamboyant rhetoric and posturing. However in the mouth of Carson, the prose poem is mangled and flat. The actors spar with each other, artfully demonstrating Wilde’s point that in one voice, words can mean the world whilst in another they are laughable. However Carson’s dogged pursuit begins to chip away at Wilde’s story and patience and the he slips on his own flippant exclamation that he’d had no amorous interest in another young man, Walter Granger, as he was a “peculiarly plain” and “ugly” boy. With a cluster of syllables, Carson and Wilde realise the game is up and Wilde desperately attempts to back track. The silver tongued wordsmith is reduced to the mumbling, spluttering simpleton he scorned.

At the beginning of Act 2, the poster for The Importance of Being Earnest is scoured away. As the criminal trial begins we understand that Wilde has been expunged from affiliation with his own work and we hear how he has been betrayed by friends and colleagues he had supported. Gorick takes centre stage, clasping on to the ornate iron railings of the witness box. There is a marked difference in Gorick’s now stooping stature and his demure demeanour. And so begins the carnival of weird and wonderful characters to defame or support. Mason and Kempsell delight in bringing to life the wacky transcripts, the most notable of these portrayals being Kempsell’s outrageous Italian Antonio Migge and Mason’s splendidly short sighted Jane Cotter. With this ragbag collection of witnesses, it is no wonder the court story made for essential salacious reading.

Living in our metropolis, it is easy to forget the crimes of which Oscar Wilde was accused would have had him put to death in 78 countries around the world today. Fear and prejudice persist in even the most enlightened societies and The Trials of Oscar Wilde may serve to remind us through the story of one famous man that we must also remember the thousands whose shimmering words will never be heard. Peter Craze and this fantastic company have created a jewel in our theatrical landscape. Intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging, The Trials of Oscar Wilde will have you on the edge of your seat bringing to life one of the most sensational cases in history. Particularly impressive when we sadly all know how it will end. The themes remain as timely as ever; should art be judged as it stands alone or in connection with its creator? If Oscar really believed that “All art is quite useless,” why did he defend his work so desperately? Who determines morality? This art is not useless, not useless at all.

Trafalgar Studios

20th Oct - 8th Nov

Tickets HERE

See Megan Prosser's earlier review HERE

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