Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: John Heffernan, Miranda Raison, Ryan Whittle, Lucy Doyle, Saffron Coomber, Michael Bertenshaw, Elizabeth Counsell, Tony Turner, Sean Murray.
If you can change the appearance of William Shakespeare’s work by adding a certain modern charm to the story, then any writer from literature’s illustrious past is worthy of eliciting a certain degree of similar occasion from; many will be called to the performance circle, many works will be deemed unfavourably, some unconsciously denied the modern touch and added personal extras, and some will shine like a beacon of joy, asking only companionship for a while of the supporter.
Oscar Wilde is one of the more friendly of authors in which to take a different slant of expression to, the elemental wit gravitates with the force of a hurricane to the listener, drawing them in regardless of their belief of their own understanding or the thought that their level of education will not stand up to the scrutiny of the text and in An Ideal Husband, the lowest common denouncement of thieves and extortionists is one that all can identify with.
Perhaps we are all Born To Be Wilde, regardless of whether the play is performed for cinema, for television or indeed on radio, the difficulty lays in how you would employ the required looks, the dead pan wit and the seriousness of the duel nature in which Oscar Wilde himself lived with excess.
To capture such a play on radio is not only down to the performer interpreting the vocalised humour but to the director who needs to highlight the inventiveness of the piece before them, and in Sasha Yevtushenko, the playfulness which covers the prospect of being revealed as a fraud is not just seen another comedy of manners, it is a direct reflection of Oscar Wilde himself. The threat of being unmasked in a society that was not forgiving of a man’s nature, not compassionate to believe that a person’s self was above the sneering morals of society, all is captured in this particular radio performance.
In many ways An Ideal Husband is second only to The Picture of Dorian Gray in textualizing the feelings of the writer as he lived on the edge of the abyss of fame, the horror of the turn of what his life could be if his natural face and love be shown in public, fascinating and dynamic, a wretched heart to live with, are found to be the writer’s greatest muse and in this case, the director’s finest passion.
A beautifully funny, dangerously revealing radio drama, An Ideal Husband is a model for returning to the classics and seeing them as freshly painted but exposed confessions, a writer’s muse turned salvation.
Ian D. Hall