Review: UCL Drama’s An Ideal Husband

Photo Courtesy: Dylan Elliott

Oscar Wilde’s ‘An Ideal Husband’ offers a delightfully hilarious mechanism through which to cope with our own political climate. Robert Chiltern, a man of seemingly impeccable character, has his flawless reputation threatened with ruin when the scheming Mrs Cheveley, known for being a “genius in the daytime and a beauty at night”, arrives at his sister Mabel’s party, armed with evidence of a corrupt secret from his past. Moral dilemmas, political satire and sparkling dialogue are weaved into the script, all while Wilde challenges the notion of what makes an “ideal husband” in an attempt to reveal that everyone, even the most respectable figures, has the ability to make mistakes. After all, ‘to err is human’…

In the hands of Sophie Eaton and Jai Britto, the Victorian play is given a shot of espresso with a camp twist. Josh Moore is ridiculously amusing as a bevel-posing, flamboyant but deeply emotional Robert Chiltern, and Alice Hemmings suits his delicate, morality-driven wife Gertrude very well. The theatricality of the performance is a magnificent ode to Wilde’s own homosexuality, with each male presence one-upping each other in effeminate extravagance. Rob Davidson’s Arthur Goring is particularly notable in this respect, with his sparkling camp-ness in both verbal delivery and physicality causing consistent giggles from the audience. Davidson’s chemistry with Leah Dawson’s Mabel Chiltern is unmatched throughout. To act a comedy well is oftentimes more challenging than a tragedy, but both Dawson and Davidson are faultless and, along with Moore, keep us giggling throughout whilst still being able to ground us with their poignant reconciliations at the end.

The play is structured as traditional Wilde plays are, broken up by tableaux and stinger songs in between acts and set changes. Insights into the eccentric ensemble characters are provided at each act-break, filling the stage with life. One memorable moment is the jocular ‘Mabel and Tommy’ song provided by Alex Dunn’s Tom Trafford. This song epitomises the most enjoyable aspects of the play, that is, minutiae that are brought out in whimsical pockets of creativity: a silhouette flashback performance; ad-libs about squeaky stairs; a swig of the butler’s flask; Lord Caversham’s ‘floating’ dog; Mabel’s roller skates! More of these wonderful ornamental moments might be preferable, as would a slight cut to the sometimes mundane dialogues.

I was expecting a revolutionary take on an already avant-garde play, however the most pioneering aspect of the play is the one thing that the creative team don’t decide – the script! The “matter of rational compromise” is, particularly nowadays, something to which we struggle to reconcile ourselves when dealing with morality and mistakes. Gertrude’s gradual understanding that her love for Robert is unconditional even in the face of his errors, after Goring’s apt advice that “nobody is incapable of doing a foolish thing; nobody is incapable of doing a wrong thing”, leads us to dwell on forgiveness and its importance in our own emotional and political perspectives. There are also delightful quips about womanhood, “how you men stand up for each other” versus “how you women war against one another”, and apt staging to allegorise the binary separations of women: a devilish Mrs Cheveley stage-right and an angelic Gertrude stage-left. Avesta Maqsudi’s Mrs Cheveley was drop-dead gorgeous in the first scene, in a wonderful purple gown with billowing sleeves, courtesy of Mara George of the Costume Team, although I would have liked to see a more varied enunciation of lines, to fully appreciate the multilateral depth of that archetypal ‘scheming woman’.

The universal use of Received Pronunciation accents by the cast, except for an interestingly composed French accent, meant that the play maintained an old-fashioned style despite the cast of fresh-faced, young actors. Yet, that is not to say it was unenjoyable. In fact, quite the opposite. I found myself giggling, chortling, laughing out loud (literally LOL-ing) regularly and, if I had the chance, I would go to see it again. It was a masterful production, especially for university students, with some stimulating food for thought for the audience. Congratulations to all involved.