MACMILLAN MODERN DRAMATISTS Macmillan Modem Dramatists Series Editors: Bruce and Adele King Published titles Reed Anderson, Federico Garda Lorca Clive Barker, British Alternative Theatre Normand Berlin, Eugene 0' Neill Michael Billington, Alan Ayckbourn (2nd ed.) Roger Boxill, Tennessee Williams David Bradby and David Williams, Directors' Theatre John Bull, New British Political Dramatists Qennis Carroll, David Mamet Neil Carson, Arthur Miller Maurice Charney, Joe Orton Ruby Cohn, New American Dramatists, 1960-1990 Bernard F. Dukore, American Dramatists, 1918-1945 Bernard F. Dukore, Harold Pinter (2nd ed.) Michael Etherton, Contemporary Irish Dramatists Arthur Ganz, George Bernard Shaw G.K. Gianakaris, Peter Shaffer James Gibbs, Wole Soyinka Frances Gray , John Arden Penny Griffin, Pinero and Jones David Hirst, Edward Bond David Hirst, Dario Fo and Franca Rame Helene Keyssar, Feminist Theatre Bettina L. Knapp, French Theatre 1918-1939 Thomas Leabhart, Modern and Post-modern Mime Charles Lyons, Samuel Beckett Gerry McCarthy, Edward Albee Margery Morgan, August Strindberg Karol Rosen, Sam Shepard Jeanette L. Savona, Jean Genet Laurence Senelick, Anton Chekhov Theodore Shank, American Alternative Theatre James Simmons, Sean O'Casey Peter Skrine, Hauptmann, Wedekind and Schnitzler Ronald Speirs, Bertolt Brecht David Thomas, Henrik Ibsen Dennis Walder, Athol Fugard Thomas Whitaker, Tom Stoppard Katharine Worth, Oscar Wilde Further titles in preparation MACMILLAN MODERN DRAMATISTS OSCAR WILDE Katharine Worth Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies in the University of London at Royal Holloway College M MACMILLAN © Katharine Worth 1983 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1983 by MACMILLAN EDUCATION LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-30423-5 ISBN 978-1-349-17157-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17157-6 Reprinted 1987, 1992 Contents List of Plates VI Editors' Preface viii A Modern Perspective on Wilde as Man of Theatre 1 2 A Revolutionary Start: Vera or the Nihilists 23 3 The Duchess of Padua 39 4 Salome 51 5 Lady Windermere's Fan 74 6 A Woman ofN o Importance 98 7 An Ideal Husband 126 8 The Importance of Being Earnest 152 9 Conclusion 183 References 189 Bibliography 193 Index 196 List of Plates la. The Great Terrace of the Palace of Herod. Setting designed by Charles Ricketts for Salome and used for the production at King's Hall, Covent Garden, 1906. Photograph: British Theatre Museum I b. Rex Whistler's design for the Octagon Room, Act 1 of An Ideal Husband. Photograph: Mr. Hugh Beaumont 2a. Charles Ricketts' costume design for the Young Syrian, Salome. Replica of the lost original design for the Tokyo production, 1919. Photograph: British Theatre Collection 2b. Gustav Moreau's The Apparition (The dance of Salome), Musee Gustav Moreau, Paris. Photograph: The Mansell Collection 3. Salome (Lindsay Kemp) holding lokanaan. Lindsay Kemp's production of Salome, Round House, 1977. Photograph: Donald Cooper 4. Miss Marion Terry as Mrs. Erlynne in Lady Windermere's Fan, St. lames's Theatre, 1892. Photograph: British Theatre Collection 5a. Lord Darlington & Company. Scene from Act III of Lady Windermere's Fan, St. lames Theatre, 1892. Photograph: British Theatre Museum VI List of Plates 5b. Scene from Act III of A Woman of No Importance (Stop, Gerald, he is your father!), 1893. Photograph: Illustrated London News 6a. George Alexander as John Worthing in Act II of The Importance of Being Earnest, St. James' Theatre, 1895. Photograph: Raymond Mander & Joe Mitchenson Collection 6b. Caricature of John Gielgud as John Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest, Globe, 1940. Photograph: John Gielgud/Sidgwick & Jackson 7. John Gielgud as John Worthing, Gwen Frangcon Davies as Gwendolen and Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell in Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest, Globe Theatre, 1939/40. Photograph: Angus McBean/Raymond Mander & Joe Mitchenson Collection 8a. Anna Massey as Miss Prism, Martin Jarvis as John Worthing and Judi Dench as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, The National Theatre, 1982. Photograph: Zoe Dominic/National Theatre 8b. Martin Jarvis as John Worthing, Zoe Wanamaker as Gwendolen Fairfax, Elizabeth Garvie as Cecily Cardew and Nigel Havers as Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of Being Earnest, The National Theatre, 1982. Photograph: Zoe Dominic/National Theatre The author and publishers are grateful to the copyright holders listed above for permission to reproduce illustrations. Every effort has been made by the publishers to trace all copyright holders. In cases where they may have failed they will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements. vii Editors' Preface The Macmillan Modern Dramatists is an international series of introductions to major and significant nineteenth and twentieth-century dramatists, movements and new forms of drama in Europe, Great Britain, America and new nations such as Nigeria and Trinidad. Besides new studies of great and influential dramatists of the past, the series includes volumes on contemporary authors, recent trends in the theatre and on many dramatists, such as writers of farce, who have created theatre 'classics' while being neglected by literary criticism. The volumes in the series devoted to individual dramatists include a biography, a survey of the plays, and detailed analysis of the most significant plays, along with discussion, where relevant, of the political, social, historical and theatrical context. The authors of the volumes, who are involved with theatre as playwrights, directors, actors, teachers and critics, are concerned with the plays as theatre and discuss such matters as performance, character interpretation and staging, along with themes and contexts. BRUCE KING ADELE KING viii 1 A Modern Perspective on Wilde as Man of ~heatre Wilde's wit and comic genius have always been acknow ledged but often grudgingly or with an undercurrent of disparagement. The early critics hardly knew how to take him. 'They laugh angrily at his epigrams', said Shaw, reviewing the first performance of An Ideal Husband, 'like a child who is coaxed into being amused in the very act of setting up a yell of rage and agony'. They did not grasp the subtlety of this wit. 'As far as 1 can ascertain' Shaw mocked, 'I am the only person in London who cannot sit down and write an Oscar Wilde play at will.' A few years 1 later The Importance of Being Earnest seemed to Max Beerbohm to have already become a classic; yet although greatly admiring it and indeed taking to task the actors in a revival of 1902 for reducing it to ordinary farce, he still did not get its value right; it was the 'horse-play' of a distinguished mind. Disparaging attitudes have been modified over the years but have not disappeared. W. H.