Words by Joy McKay. Photo credit: Marc Brenner.
Star rating: 4 out of 5.
The Importance of Being Oscar is a play first premiered in Dublin in 1960 written and performed by Micheál Mac Liammóir. It quickly achieved success being shown on Broadway, as an award winning television production and an audio LP release within just a few years. This production starring Alastair Whatley and Directed by Mike Fentimen is currently touring the UK before a London residency.
Currently being performed at The Theatre Royal in Winchester, a charming period theatre so easily accessible from Southampton by public transport and car.
This is a one man show about the life of Oscar Wilde, often in his own words, taken from plays, stories, letters and poems. We meet Oscar as he leaves his homeland of Ireland in 1874 (aged 20) and remain with him until his death, in Paris, in 1900, at just 46 years old.
I’m familiar with Wilde’s literary work, preferring The Picture of Dorian Gray and his Fairy Tales over his plays, but perhaps I’m more familiar with his reputation as the quintessential queer and during Pride month was excited to see a joyful celebration of Wilde’s life (23/6/26).
Whatley takes on this intimidating solo role confidently, his performance unflawed. He commands the stage, and our attention, as he recounts important stages in Oscar’s (as he is referred to) life. Snippets from books, from plays. A letter, even the entirety of De Profundus. He is there, alone, spotlighted. And whilst the audience smiles and laughs we are mostly sad.
This is no happy tale and I wonder if that is not in fact a reflection of Wilde’s life – in this telling the trauma and tragedy shadows his success, his genius, his passion and, importantly, his loves – but is in fact a reflection of Mac Liammóir’s life as he was writing?
Also of Irish descent and openly gay, when he wrote and performed this play homosexuality was illegal, in fact despite being decriminalised in England in 1967, it was still illegal in Ireland at the time of Mac Liammóir’s death in 1978 (eventually being decriminalised in 1993).
How can you write of the gaiety of Wilde’s life, of his loves, of his openness as a bisexual man when such homophobic laws still existed?
Obviously we can’t change Mac Liammóir’s words, nor would I want to; This play is as much about him in his time as it is about Wilde in his. But I think it is important to acknowledge that the experiences of both of these men was wrong.
I feel that a reference to the positive role these men played in queer history in the programme could address some of that balance.
The play is poignant and the performance brilliant, but certainly not the celebration I was expecting. Whilst it may have been a mirror of his own shame for Mac Liammóir it is, perhaps, more a cautionary tale for us now?
A message to support our LGBTQIA+ community, celebrate their achievements, nurture them to reach their full potential so we can tell the happy stories instead of the sad ones.
The Importance of Being Oscar will be at Theatre Royal Winchester from Tuesday 23 – Wednesday 24 June. Recommended age 12+.For more information, or to book tickets, visit: theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk or call 01962 840 440.
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