Intense drama and high emotion

1:08pm Tuesday 30th September 2008

POLITICAL corruption, blackmail and fear of discovery – the ingredients for a good juicy scandal have been making us sit up and take notice for years.

And they make darned good dramas too. House of Cards anyone? State of Play?

Well more than 100 years ago Oscar Wilde knew a thing or two about scandal and corruption, added plenty of his sparkling wit to the brew along with some enlightening insights into human frailty and some extraordinarily pithy observations about newspapers that could easily be applied to today’s national media and the result was An Ideal Husband.

Here is plenty of the brittle trademark repartee but, unlike the continuously frothy Importance of Being Earnest, this often makes way for intense drama and high emotion as long-buried secrets are revealed.

This revival of Peter Hall’s acclaimed production boasts a line-up of stage stalwarts: Kate O’Mara’s manipulative blackmailing Mrs Cheveley, Fenella Fielding’s scene-stealing Lady Markby, Michael Praed’s powerfully successful MP hiding a dark secret, Carol Royle’s idealistic Lady Chiltern and Tony Britton’s Earl of Caversham who seemed to have trouble remembering his lines but appeared to handle it all so skilfully that one started to question whether it was indeed amnesia or acting.

The Lord Goring role is seen as a thinly disguised portrait of Wilde himself and this production goes to great trouble to ensure Robert Duncan sports suitably floppy cravats and flowery button holes. Duncan is, indeed, a great comic performer and is a joy to watch but sadly the same can’t be said of his wig. The idea of giving him flowing locks to enhance his Wildean appearance is ruined by a poor choice of fake follicles.

But the wig is the worst performer in a marvellously delivered show that remains as fresh today as it ever was.

An Ideal Husband is at Malvern Theatres until Saturday, October 4. To book, call the box office on 01684 892277 or visit malvern-theatres.co.uk