Oscar Wilde predicted his future when he came down from Oxford University: “I’ll be a poet, a writer, a dramatist. Somehow or other I’ll be famous, and if not famous, I’ll be notorious.” There have been many plays, films, monologues and even a ballet about Wilde. David Hare’s play, premiered in 1998, is one of the best and it gets a good revival from Neil Armfield.
Wilde could easily have caught the boat train to Paris on 6 April 1895 and escaped arrest, trial for gross indecency and two years hard labour in prison. So why did he wait in the Cadogan Hotel in Knightsbridge for the police to arrive? Nobody knows. Hare comes up with some convincing guesses.
There is a remarkable performance by Rupert Everett as Oscar, his best to date; puffy, fleshy, haggard, the eyes dead, he effortlessly commands the stage, physically and intellectually. Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde’s lover and nemesis, has always had a bad press. Hare’s text and Freddie Fox’s portrayal show him in all his selfish, shallow, hysterical obnoxiousness, outrageously claiming that his suffering has been greater than Oscar’s.
There is also solid support from Cal Macaninch as Robbie Ross, the loyal friend, who stood by Wilde during his imprisonment and exile and after his death.