An Ideal Husband

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "An Ideal Husband" by Oscar Wilde

Date: Sat, June 3, 10:28 PM

Quicktake on AN IDEAL HUSBAND

     For their late spring show, the Wellesley Summer Theatre is presenting a full version of Oscar Wilde's dramatic comedy, "An Ideal Husband," with every quip in place. In the hands of this experienced ensemble the four acts pass quickly enough. IRNE winner Alicia Kahn is back in town to play the dangerous and alluring Mrs. Cheveley with Derek Stone Nelson as her chief foil, playing Lord Arthur Goring, man about town--and the author's standin. The target of the lady's machinations is ambitious politician Sir Robert Chiltern, played by Shelly Bolman, with Angie Jepson as his highly moral wife, Gertrude. Lord Arthur is Sir Robert's oldest friend, and has been diffidently courting Gertrude's younger sister, Mabel, played by Wellesley student, Kelly Galvin. His father, Lord Caversham provides another finely drawn character for Ed Peed, with Charlotte Peed playing Mrs. Cheveley's talkative friend, Lady Markby. Among the WST regulars are Lisa Foley as aging Mrs. Marchmont and Wellesley grad Victoria George as her catty friend Lady Basildon. MOst of the members of this cast were seen inn early spring in WST's production of "Under Milk Wood," including Marc Harpin, who plays the Chiltern's butler, Mason. John Gavin, who was seen last season in "Pride's Crossing" and "After Mrs. Rochester" performs the same service for Lord Arthur as his man Phipps. Luis Negron doubles as Vicomte de Nanjac in the first act and Lord Arthur's footman Harold in the third, while Dan Bolton is Mr. Montford , then Mason's assistant, James.

     Ken Loewit has created an stylish unit set with an appropriately mauve tone, well lit as usual. Nancy Stevenson's costumes bring these Edwardians to life, with the help of a company that knows how to wear clothes. With WST's associate director Andrea Kennedy at the helm the dialogue moves right along through Wilde's witty patches and the play's more serious action. Less produced than "The Importance of Being Earnest", which was also written in 1895, this social satire with political implications suggests that if Wilde had been able to continue developing as a dramatist, he might have rivaled Shaw in taking on the complacency and moral failing of the pre-WWI Empire. There's an echo of his own impending predicaments in the play, particularly in Lord Goring's almost Nietzchean approach to his life of leisure, and his turning into "An Ideal Husband."

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"An Ideal Husband" by Oscar Wilde, May 30 - June 24

Wellesley Summer Theatre in Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre

Alumni Hall, Wellesley College, (781) 283 - 2000
Wellesley Summer Theatre