“Cross-Atlantic differences in class systems amalgamate into a constant sense of shifting between the old and the new” Wilde’s characters exist in a tumultuous and high-stakes Washington, albeit one with a strange penchant for distinctly Victorian humour. Suddenly, the political scandal which precedes and frames the play no longer hinges on any business with canals, but on involvement in the last years of the Vietnam War. Upton’s production of An Ideal Husband refreshes and recontextualises Oscar Wilde’s classic play, plucking it from Victorian England and thrusting it into 1970s America.
Amidst these trappings of domesticity are the clues to Frederick Upton’s vision: an unobtrusive (if that can be possible) American flag, ghastly yellow wallpaper fit for the 70s, and a tiny bell by the door in which lingers remnants of the play’s “Englishness”. This is the battleground of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband - beginning at his own party, Robert Chiltern is caught up in a tricksy battle of morality and (alas, not his) wits as the pernicious Mrs Cheveley’s blackmail threatens to crumble his wife’s “ideal husband” portrait of him.
The stage is set so sparsely that each piece of furniture is symbolic - sofa, fireplace, coat-stand, and even drooping plant all create a perfect vision of domesticity.
0 kommentar(er)
