No 50 : May / June 2009

RECENT, CURRENT & FORTHCOMING PRODUCTIONS

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This page covers Wilde and Wilde-related theatre productions, compiled from material gathered by the Editorial team for our three Theatre Editors, Helena Gurfinkel, Gwen Orel and Michelle Paull. For an essay by Patricia Flanagan Behrendt setting out how we plan to develop our engagement with Wilde theatre beyond our simple record of the productions, click .

French productions are chiefly covered in our sister publication, rue des beaux arts

Coverage of other productions of fin-de-siècle interest, previously on this page under the heading ‘Beyond the Wilderness’, are now to be found on our Theatre page, UPSTAGE.

We hope readers will help provide information. Productions are given as a rolling list, new ones being added each month, old ones being removed after a period of exposure. Offers to review are always welcome.

We are also creating a scenography of productions. This will be an immense task, and probably will never be completed, but a start has been made. Click the sunflower

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Canada		Switzerland
England		The United States of America
Germany
Ireland		Curtain Down

CANADA

Vancouver Opera’s 2008-2009 season includes a modern production of Richard Strauss’s Salomé, directed by Joseph McLain and conducted by Jonathan Darlington. It features Mlada Khudoley as Salomé, Greer Grimsley as Jokanaan, Judith Forst as Herodias and John Mac Master as Herod. It ran 2nd, 5th, 7th, and 9th May at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, sung in German with English surtitles.

The 2009 Season at Stratford, Ontario includes a production of The Importance of being Earnest. Previews begin 9th May; the play opens 2nd June, closes 30th October. Director: Brian Bedford; designer: Desmond Heeley; lighting designer: Kevin Fraser; composer: Berthold Carrière; sound designer Jim Neil. Brian Bedford plays Lady Bracknell. This is supplemented by Ever Yours, Oscar – compiled by Peter Wylde from the letters of Oscar Wilde and performed and directed by Brian Bedford. Previews begin 19th June; the show opens 20th June and closes 19th August.

ENGLAND

A Man of No Importance

St Peter Players, Chalfont St Peter 23rd – 25th July

GERMANY

Contributed by Lucia Krämer

In German theatres, the past three months have been very slow concerning new productions of Wilde. There has been only one new production of Earnest as burlesque by the Badische Landesbühne, which premiered on 9th April and toured Baden throughout May. The details of this production are as follows:

Bunbury

Die Badische Landesbühne

Directed by Wolf E. Rahlfs

Costumes: Franziska Smolarek

With Tobias Gondolf (Jack Worthing), Miriam Gronau (Gwendolen Fairfax), Helge Gutbrod (Algernon Moncrieff), Cornelia Heilmann (Lady Bracknell), Hannes Höchsmann (Lane), René Laier (Pastor Chasuble), Beate Metz (Cecily Cardew), Anke Siefken (Miss Prism)

A potentially more interesting project, a production of a Salomé adaptation by Einar Schleef at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin (dir. Vera Nemirova), which should have premiered on 18th February, did unfortunately not materialise. It was abandoned because of artistic differences.

Yet Salome was present on German stages in Strauss’ operatic version, with repertory performances for example at the Deutsche Oper Berlin; with a revival in March and April of a 2004 production of the piece in Cologne; and with one new production in Lübeck. The Lübeck production garnered unanimous praise for Manuela Uhl in the title role, yet there were mixed reactions to the work of Roman Brogli-Sacher, who took on the double role of director and musical director. While his musical interpretation of Strauss’ work was widely lauded, his directorial concept met with mixed reviews. The production opened on 2nd February and will be performed until 18th June 2009.

While the Cologne production, directed by respected German actress Katharina Thalbach, received mixed reviews when it was first produced in 2004, its revival has been widely praised. Like Manuela Uhl in the Lübeck production, Catherine Naglestad in the title role was singled out for particular praise by the reviewers, who now also seemed reconciled to Thalbach’s modernizing re-interpretation of the Salomé story. Here are the details for the two productions:

Salome

Theater Lübeck

Bühnen Köln

Direction/Musical Direction: Roman Brogli-Sacher

Musical Direction: Enrico Dovico / Markus Stenz; Direction: Katharina Thalbach

Production Design: Ulrike Radichevich

Set: Momme Röhrbein; Costumes: Angelika Rieck

Choreography: Martina Wüst

Lighting: Dirk Sarach-Craig

Cast:

Cast:

Herodes: Matthias Grätzel, John Pickering

Herodes| Alexander Fedin

Herodias: Roswitha C. Müller

Herodias| Dalia Schaechter / Renate Behle

Salome: Manuela Uhl, Michaela Lucas

Salome: Catherine Naglestad

Jochanaan: Antonio Yang

Jochanaan: Samuel Youn / Thomas J. Mayer

Narraboth: Daniel Szeili

Narraboth: Ray M. Wade jr.

Ein Page: Wioletta Hebrowska, Sandra Maxheimer

Ein Page: Adriana Bastidas Gamboa

IRELAND

Contributed by Aoife Leahy

The Dublin Gay Theatre Festival was back, after an opening night launch at The Front Lounge pub on the 30th of April. Plays ran from the 4th of May to the 17th of May, and last year’s very popular illustration of Wilde with a green carnation in his mouth was again prominent on the festival’s website and promotional material. The festival’s artistic director Brian Merriman remarked last year that using Wilde’s immediately recognisable image had greatly helped in advertising the festival. Appropriately, Wilde’s life and work are very well represented on the 2009 programme. The full programme of events is on view at http://www.gaytheatre.ie/

During the first week, Leslie Clack’s one-man play More Lives Than One - Oscar Wilde and the Black Douglas was on at The Cobalt Café, North Great George’s Street6, from the 4th to the 9th every evening at 8pm. I was very sorry to miss a short run of the play at 90 Merrion Square last October (privately arranged by the Friends of the National Gallery), but the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival has saved the day! Leslie Clack narrates the story and plays Wilde’s characters Dorian Gray, Salomé, Lady Bracknell and Herod as well as real life figures such as Edward Carson. He kindly spoke to me on the phone before leaving for Dublin and explained that there are thirteen distinct characters in all. Les was looking forward to visiting Dublin again and to performing in the lovely drawing room setting of the Cobalt Café. He remarked that it would be a rather different experience to acting in the 700-seat theatre that he played in recently!

Lord Arthur’s Bed performed by the Theatre North company from North Yorkshire should also be of interest to Wildeans, since the play examines personalities from the famous Boulton and Park Case of the early 1870s. Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park were arrested for wearing women’s clothes but were ultimately found not guilty, apparently because they played to the crowd and entertained the jury. Wilde may have borrowed the name of Ernest for his most famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest. In Lord Arthur’s Bed, Ernest/Stella’s unofficial marriage to Lord Arthur Clinton in 1868 is contrasted to the civil partnership of Donald and Jim in 2008. Again, Wilde may have borrowed Lord Arthur’s name for “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime.” This play runs from the 4th to the 9th of May at 8pm, in The New Theatre.

During the second week of the festival, an adaptation of Wilde’s fairytale The Happy Prince was showing at the Outhouse Theatre, 105 Capel St. The adaptation takes on a contemporary context in using props from poverty stricken areas of the world. The play ran at varying times from the 15th of May to the 17th of May. Since there were performances at 6.30pm on the 15th, at 1pm and 3.30pm on the 16th and at 2pm and 4.30pm on the 17th, the play is likely to be aimed at audiences of all ages. The play was performed by five young actors from The Peculius Stage Company, Durham.

An adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray was also showing from the 11th of May to the 16th of May at 8pm every evening in The New Theatre. The play is described as a tale of obsession, extravagance and lust and is performed by the Independent Theatre ensemble, from Indiana, U.S.A. All in all, this is an excellent year for Wilde at the festival.

SWITZERLAND

Bunbury (The Importance of being Earnest) was played in Basel at the Förnbacher Theater im Bad Bahnhof on the 10th May 2009 by the Helmut Förnbacher Theater Company.

The Importance of Being Earnest was performed – in English – in Zug  at the Burgbachsaal, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 29th and 30th May.

John “Jack” Worthing, J.P.		Matthieu Moss
Algernon “Algy” Moncrieff		Peter Ramsay
Lady Augusta Bracknell		Nicola Zubler
Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax		Julie-Anne Smith
Cecily Cardew		Corinne Schmuki
Miss Laetitia Prism		Kate Hönigsberg
Rev. Canon Frederick Chasuble, D.D.		Andrew Glass
Lane/Merriman		Jeffrey Glanz
Peter Gilbert		Director
Marilyn Dewji Winter		Stage Manager
Kathy Glass		Costumes
Stephanie Böhm		Props
Jaana Wüthrich		Front of House
Natalia Mouratova		Make up
Jerôme Weber		Lighting & sound
Andrew Glass		Technical
Marcel Schmid		Print design
Jasmin Metzger		Production Manager

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The Importance of being Earnest was played by the Trinity Repertory Company, Providence, Rhode Island, 10th April to 17th May 2009. Director: Beth Milles; Set Designer: Michael McGarty; Lighting Designer: Russell Champa; Costume Designer: William Lane;
Sound Designer: Peter Sasha.

Engaged by W.S. Gilbert has been identified as a play that Wilde drew upon for The Importance of being Earnest. Directed by Fortunato Pezzimenti, this raely performed piece will be given a run by the Irish Classical Theatre Company, Buffalo, NY 23rd April–23rd May 2010.

WALES

Salome

CURTAIN DOWN

Productions that escaped us earlier

Proving that Wilde productions are popular all over Ireland, Carlow College staged A Wilde Night: the Drama and Wit of Oscar Wilde on the evenings of March the 1st and March the 2nd 2007. There were selected scenes from The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere’s Fan and A Woman of No Importance, performed by students and local celebrities.
from Aoife Leahy

Gilbert and Sullivan Go Wilde by James Dinsmore and Tim Tricker. Director, Shirley Cummings; Musical Director,  Tim Tricker. The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, Scotland 14th-16th June 2007. A musical comedy romp in one act, Gilbert and Sullivan Go Wilde  combines the characters from The Importance of Being Earnest with music and lyrics drawn from all thirteen Savoy operettas. The action takes place in the village of Bunbury. Jack, a sailor recently returned from sea, and Algy, a pirate recently retired from pillaging, compete for the hand of Constance, a fair maiden. This upsets Gwendolen and Cecily (two more fair maidens) who are instantly smitten with the newly arrived men. Luckily, Constance is determined to find someone altogether more artistic - someone who would make An Ideal Husband. Lady Bracknell, Miss Prism, Dr Chasuble and even Oscar Wilde are interwoven with some favourite G&S characters in a masterly mixture of songs and snatches to provide an enjoyably new and entertaining take on Gilbert and Sullivan. For more information, click here.
from Danielle Guérin

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