Wilde in his own words

TOWNHALL Govan brings a reflective Wilde to the stage

A broken Oscar Wilde reflecting on his many artistic triumphs and ultimate demise is the premise of a one-man show coming to the Townhall next week.

Will Govan is taking on the role of the flamboyant Wilde in Neil Titley’s acclaimed drama ‘Work is the curse of the Drinking Classes’. Sitting in the rustic kitchen of the beautiful Drumlane home of Will and his wife and creative partner Rebecca O’Connor, and their three children, it’s a world away from the decadence associated with Wilde. So how does Will feel about filling Wilde’s boots?

“Fortunately I’m only doing it for an hour, so it’s not too bad,” jokes Will.

He assures his interpretation doesn’t lurch into impersonation of the foppish playwright. However he has had a dapper three-piece suit specially made for the part, and quite naturally carries off some of Wilde’s physical traits. A quick run through with a brush of Will’s chestnut hair and he’s sporting Wilde’s distinctive centre parting.

Boozy

“This is Oscar Wilde in the last years of his life, he’s only out of prison, he’s not well, he’s boozy, he’s overweight - he’s very similar to myself really at this stage of life,” quips Will.

Then there’s the accent. Sadly no recordings exist of Wilde, but given he was part of the Anglo-Irish elite, and progressed to Oxford University before taking the London theatre world by storm, it’s likely the Dublin native had an accent quite similar to Will’s south of England accent.

Finally we come to Will’s significant height.

“He was very tall and so if nothing else hopefully I’ll look the part.

“He was 6ft 3 and I’m 6ft 8 so we are probably a very similar height in terms of our generation,” he observes. The average height for UK males at the turn of the 20th Century was just 5ft 5 compared to today’s 5ft 8.

Such matters are incidental to Will: “I only hope to interpret the play which is beautifully written, in the best way that I can.

Will, who is also an accomplished visual artist, approached playwright Neil Titley about performing the play penned in 1978.

“He himself performed it for over 40 years, over 700 times, and on every continent,” says Will, then reconsiders. “All except Antarctica I presume, you’d have to verify that with him.”

“He has amazing reviews from like ‘The China Post’ and ‘The Indian Times’ and that, I mean from literally all over the world, it’s incredible,” adds Rebecca who is directing Will.

An unconventional barometer of the play’s quality is that it took Titley around Ireland.

“About 20 years ago after having watched Tony Hawk going around Ireland with a fridge, he was having a few drinks with some friends and he bet he could get around Ireland with a play. So he went hitch-hiking around Ireland with the play with a very limited amount of money and performed it in pubs. Since then it hasn’t been in Ireland.

“Neil’s retired now, so when I suggested I take it on he liked the idea,” says Will.

“He describes the play as an entertainment of the works of Oscar Wilde. All of the material is Oscar Wilde’s, but he’s put it together to produce this narrative.

“I would like to think that anybody, regardless of whether they know anything about Oscar Wilde will enjoy the play and come away thinking that they do know about him.”

The play features Wilde in a Parisian cafe in 1898, at his most vulnerable.

Bosie

“He’s just out of prison, he’s a mess and he’s reflecting on his earlier life and career and what’s happened to him,” explains Will.

Of course the ‘what’s happened to him’ is his illicit affair with Alfred Douglas, whom Wilde affectionately called Bosie, the two subsequent trials and prison.

The first trial saw Wilde sue Bosie’s father, the Marquis of Queensbury for libel; and when that went against him a criminal trial followed in which Wilde faced charges of sodomy and gross indecency.

“He really shouldn’t have taken him to court in the first place,” says Will of the libel action. “He did that for the wrong reasons.

“He was spurred on by Alfred Douglas, he [Wilde] wanted to protect him and he wanted to defend him.”

Was Wilde just a victim of his time - would he have thrived in the more liberal world of today?

“It’d be lovely to think now, given that homosexuality is legal he wouldn’t have had such a hard time, but he did have this insatiable passion for life and exploring the depths, so I don’t think that living in a more liberal time would necessarily have tempered his appetite. He was still flawed because he didn’t really know when to stop. He did really go to the depths and was utterly self-destructive,” says Will.

At points the story is necessarily “devastating”, but this being the greatest wit of his time, the laughs are never far away.

Rebecca notes that while most Wilde biopics focus exclusively on this, Titley’s play has a much wider focus.

“What’s amazing about the play is how pertinent it all feels. His social commentary - he talks about the government, he talks about education, he talks about all these things and he could be talking about today. It’s still totally relevant, it’s like nothing’s really changed that much.”

Work is the Curse of the Drinking Classes will play the Townhall Cavan on Friday, March 24 at 8pm. Doors open 7.30pm. For tickets see: townhallcavan.com