Review: A rugged Wilde wrestles with loss
FIRST NIGHT: The Judas Kiss Playhouse Theatre
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.THERE was more than a touch of Hollywood in London last night. As Leonardo DiCaprio thrilled film fans in Leicester Square, down the road at the Playhouse Theatre literary London gathered to see Liam Neeson in the world premiere of the latest play by David Hare.
The Almeida Theatre production, directed by Richard Eyre and going straight into the West End, was watched by an audience that included sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, director Sir Peter Hall, novelist Ian McEwen and actors Michael Gambon and Ian Holm.
They saw a play about one of Hare's recurrent themes - betrayal. It revolved around two episodes in the life of Oscar Wilde shortly before and after his imprisonment: the ultimate betrayal of their love by the narcissistic and petulant Lord Alfred Douglas, and Wilde's own betrayal of the truth in court.
The casting of the star of Schindler's List and Michael Collins as Wilde was intriguing. Neeson was last in an English production in Manchester 12 years ago.
His portrayal broke with a long and arguably tired tradition of a camp, effete playwright. Neeson is powerfully built and ruggedly handsome and Hare gave him no epigrams and few witticisms.
Instead, we had a memorably affecting portrayal of a man struggling to come to terms with his many losses. His desperate clutching at the hand of a friend hints at his loneliness while his young aristocratic lover samples the local fishermen.
Intensely touching is his lament for his children: "Even though I left to travel down the darkest East End street to smear my mouth against men whose names I never knew, men whom I never saw, pressed against walls in the dark, in the rough dark - yet every night I came home and told my children stories of ghosts, of fairies, of monsters and of enchanted lands."
Neeson's performance is compelling from first to last.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments