Political backstabbing, dodgy deals in the corridors of power, and a bust-up over shipping lanes: one could be forgiven for thinking the evening ahead was centred on today’s political climate. Yet, despite its heavy political grounding, this new take on Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband soars thanks to Nicholai La Barrie’s vibrant and energetic direction.
Maintaining all of Wilde’s hallmarks: witty aristocratic women, flawed husbands, flamboyant dandies and mischievous plotters, La Barrie shifts the play from Victorian London’s high society to the 21st century upper classes, using an all-Black cast, contemporary music, language and dance to make the social comedy about reputation, love and scandal feel much more relevant to today’s audiences.
The comedy is built around Sir Robert Chiltern (Chikè Okonkwo), a well-respected MP who has garnered a reputation for nobility and loyalty, but soon finds himself potentially embroiled in a career-ending scandal when the conniving Mrs Cheveley blackmails the politician over the unscrupulous means by which Chiltern came into money. While the plot is fixed upon duplicity and devious schemes, La Barrie’s direction holds firm for falling into a much bleaker tone, finding greater success when leaning on flamboyance and humour drawn from the miscommunications and behaviours of those swept up in the matter.
As Chiltern, Okonkwo succeeds in drawing out the skewering of male reputation that is woven so well into this work. Chiltern, kind and loving on the outside, is desperate more than anything to save his own skin, even if that means blaming his devout and desperately naive wife Lady Chiltern (an excellent Tamara Lawrance). There is a quick chemistry established between the pair bridging the decadence of their lifestyle with the intimacy of husband and wife, yet in a way that resonates with audiences, even eliciting audible gasps and cries, especially during Robert’s attempts to protect himself at all costs.
Meanwhile, the catalyst for the chaos is an underplayed Mrs Cheveley, with Aurora Perrineau drifting across the stage with a terrific poise that disguises the scheming which bubbles underneath. Upon her first entrance, gracefully descending the Chiltern’s expansive staircase, part of Rajha Shakiry’s gorgeous design, Perrineau immediately captures the attention and is a neat and more refined contrast to the brash and at times outlandish characterisation of the rest of the play’s characters.
It is a production also bolstered, though, by its terrific ensemble cast. Jamael Westman’s Viscount Goring, a work-shy dandy who spends his time drifting from pleasure to pleasure, is a comedic treat, with melodramatic gestures and witty one-liners that move the piece along at a good speed. Westman conjures a good connection with the brilliant Tiwa Lade, who, as Mabel Chiltern, is Goring’s love interest and deliberately, humorously, vacuous as a ploy for control.
Yet it is two comedic performances which particularly threaten to steal the show. Emmanuel Akwafo, who doubles as Chiltern’s and Goring’s respective butlers, Mason and Phipps, is terrific fun, with catty swishes and aggrieved announcements; it is a delivery that steals every scene and every punchline. In addition, Jeff Alexander’s Earl of Caversham, melodramatically walking with a cane, savaged by time, is unrelenting in his putdown of son Goring, and like Akwafo, seizes the comedic moments.
An Ideal Husband makes the right choices in leaning on the comedic elements of Wilde’s play, though it is with a second half that feels slightly too conveniently wrapped up, with an abrupt resolution that jars with the winding nature of the rest of the piece. While it lands an awful lot of its comedic punches, it could also do with a little more restraint at times, which would, again, help the ending stick a little more.
That said, at over 100 years old, Wilde’s An Ideal Husband could be showing some signs of wear and tear, a callback to a disappeared era, yet La Barrie’s direction breathes new life into the playwright’s comedy about blackmail and political corruption. Buoyed by an exceptional cast, clever direction, and lavish design, this reimagining is terrific fun, earning a reputation as an imaginative and creative restyling of Wilde’s Victorian societal comedy.
