1:30pm Monday 26th July 2010
A ONE-man show celebrating Oscar Wilde’s distingui-shed life is coming to the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre tonight.
Staged as a single-hander, and directed by Tom Neill, The Importance of Being Oscar is a tribute to the first modern man, a theatrical luminary and flamboyant socialite. Performed by Alastair Whatley (pictured) Wilde’s private and public lives are creatively juxtaposed with extracts from his poems, letters, plays and novels including, amongst others An Ideal Husband, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Written and performed in 1960 by honorary Irish the-atrical polymath Micheál Mac Liammóir, The Importance of Being Oscar toured the world to critical exultation and popular adulation. Fifty years on, the show is as captivating and magical as ever and is playing at the Guildford theatre from until Wednesday.
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in 1854 into an Anglo-Irish family in Dublin, and his rich and dramatic portrayals of the human condition were the glory of the Victorian era.
Regarded as one of the nation’s greatest playwrights and famous for his superbly sharp wit, Wilde wrote and produced nine plays during his lifetime, and one novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. His works continue to be widely performed today, especially The Importance of Being Earnest.
Originally commissioned in 2009 to celebrate South Hill Park Arts Centre’s 25th anniversary, The Importance of Being Oscar has been freshly re-directed and designed for touring by nationally-renowned Original Theatre Company.
More information and tickets are available by calling the box office, on 01483 440000, or going online to yvonne-arnaud.co.uk.
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