Playwright: Oscar Wilde
At: Circle Theatre, 7300 W. Madison, Forest Park
Phone: 708-771-0700; $21-$23
Through Aug. 5
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
Circle Theatre's An Ideal Husband is…
…a confectionery costume delight!
…a storehouse of ingeniously sumptuous settings!
…a wonderfully staged Oscar Wilde classic that whooshes up witticism and charm throughout!
Please excuse my critical quote-whoring on behalf of any advertising campaign for Circle Theatre, but its immensely enjoyable production of An Ideal Husband is all of the above.
Thanks to generous grants from The Pauls Foundation and Chase Hunter Group, Circle Theatre has blown its design wad on fabulous Victorian costumes by Elizabeth Shaffer and gorgeous period settings by Bob Knuth. The combined effect makes Circle's An Ideal Husband a sparkly and frilly feast for the eyes.
But what of the play itself? Or the acting ensemble?
Often overshadowed by Wilde's comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband is a more serious comic drama about hidden deceptions and the aggrandized expectations of moral perfection between spouses and people in the public eye.
Taken at face value, it's a craftily constructed melodrama with generous helpings of satire ribbing Victorian society. But put in the context of the times ( Wilde was in the midst of libel and gross indecency trials when the play premiered in 1895 ) , An Ideal Husband shines some insight into Wilde's own troubled family life and his soon-to-be publicly-condemned homosexuality.
Anyone interested in gay history should see this production. But the whole show itself is so enjoyable that it won't feel at all like a dutiful history lesson.
Director Jim Schneider has assembled a skilled and lovely cast to illuminate Wilde's work. As the rakish Lord Goring, who helps set things right, Bradford R. Lund is a dandified charmer. He's more than matched by the prissily superficial socialite Mabel Chiltern ( Catherine Ferraro, a spot-on comic spitfire ) .
On the dramatic side, Saren Nofs-Snyder's Mrs. Chevely is a deliciously blackmailing villainess oozing with charm, sending the prim and proper Parliamentarian couple of Sir Robert Chiltern and Lady Gertrude into domestic histrionics ( Jonathan Nichols and Denita Linnertz, respectively, wringing honest and agonized emotion at Sir Robert's political indiscretion ) .
Judith Hoppe has plenty of fun as the matronly chatterbox Lady Markby while Phil Carlin's dry butler, Phipps, is a master of understatement. The only weak links in the production are some of the actors in cameo roles who falter at winning the big laughs from Wilde's classic comedy ( though the Victorian context could be partially to blame ) .
Otherwise, An Ideal Husband is a very entertaining antique with historical gay resonance. It shines anew in the talented hands of a talented acting ensemble.
And don't forget those lavish costumes and production values! ( Yes, it's stereotypical to emphasize from a gay publication—but, oh, so true! ) .