The Trials of Oscar Wilde, Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond

EUROPEAN Arts Company’s new play charting the descent from grace of one of Britain’s best-loved playwrights contained all the vital ingredients for a scandalous and entertaining court room drama. Its execution, however, was at times a little dry and did not do justice to Wilde’s flamboyant talent and wonderfully over-developed ego.

The writers, John O’Connor and Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland, faithfully adhered to the original words used in court, with the laudable aim of allowing us to see Wilde under pressure, a curious mixture of evasion, lies and occasionally flashes of defiance and searing wit.

However, long uncensored passages of cross examination became equally tedious for Wilde and the audience, and not even John Gorick’s bravura performance as Wilde could fully compensate.

Rupert Mason and William Kempsell gave versatile performances as the Marquess of Queensbury, Charles Gill QC and the motley crew of rent boys whose testimony quickly turned a libel action brought by Wilde into his own criminal trial.

Notwithstanding the joy of Wilde’s attempts to corrupt the proceedings into sparkling intellectual debate, it seemed ironic that this promising play sacrificed dramatic art for realism.

In a year when another celebrated Oscar had his reputation destroyed at the hands of a clever prosecutor, this was a timely reminder of how far society has come in 120 years. The homophobic, class and legal prejudices of the British judiciary in 1895 are a far cry from a black female judge presiding over an international media spectacle.

Despite the Richmond audience clearly showing their appreciation, I left feeling that I had witnessed Wilde stripped of his legacy, exposed in his weakness and finally disabused of the notion that he was above the law. Not so very different from Mr Pistorius after all.

Christina McIntyre