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'Everything everyone expects in Wilde - wonderful one liners and the best exit lines ever'

The Lace Market Theatre presents Oscar Wilde's "witty, amusing, intriguing and thought-provoking" An Ideal Husband as its next play and director Max Bromley explains why

What do you love most about ‘An Ideal Husband’?

It has come as a surprise to me really how good the play is. The intrigue and corruption we discover means there is a real sense of a story unfolding: Will ‘X’ be found out? Will ‘Y’ reveal the truth? Will ‘Z’ realise their relationship is based on a lie?

We meet some wonderfully rounded characters – Lord Goring who appears to care for nothing other than his appearance but who reveals an unerring talent to understand the motives of all those around him; Mrs Cheveley, ‘a genius in the daytime and a beauty at night’ who attempts to manipulate those she meets and nearly succeeds; Robert and Gertrude Chiltern whose marriage appears ideal but as the action develops threatens to end in separation.

We have everything everyone expects in Wilde - wonderful one liners and the best exit lines ever. But there is so much more.

What kind of person is going to love this show?

The play is witty, amusing, intriguing, thought-provoking; everything in fact to ensure an interesting couple of hours in the theatre. And an alternative Christmas offering to many of those other productions being performed in Nottingham this December.

What work have you done to bring new elements of the story to the production?

When Wilde wrote the play in 1895 there were certain conventions he had to accommodate. Performances were long – the intervals frequent – so it was often necessary to remind the audience of important facts so they could ‘keep up’. The Haymarket Theatre in London where it premiered is a large performing space and the audience then expected a slightly declamatory style of acting.

Society then had defined ideas as to the behaviour of the two people involved.

In 2017 at The Lace Market Theatre the space is much more intimate: the audience rather more ‘on the ball’ and their views of marriage are thankfully not the same. Therefore I have edited the text to keep all that is good, retain the spirit of the age when it was written but remove some of the rather more cringe-making passages.

How does this production differ from other plays this season at the Lace Market Theatre?

Plays by Sarah Kane and Terence Rattigan are now in rehearsal - plays by DH Lawrence and Amanda Whittington have been performed. Oscar Wilde’s ‘An Ideal Husband’ is one of the elements what is known as a balanced season giving both the members and the audiences the opportunity to perform in and watch the widest possible variety of dramatic work.

Read the original article here.