Living in Reading you can’t escape the legacy of Oscar Wilde and his notorious spell in Reading Gaol. In 2016 we experienced the extraordinary reading by Ralph Fiennes of the letter Wilde wrote to his friend Lord Alfred Douglas, De Profundis, staged in front of his cell door within the Prison gym and were held spellbound by the performance and the words for three hours. In 2017 we saw a wonderful adaption of his 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Grey by Phoebe Eclair-Powell at the Watermill in Newbury with a cast of three actresses and a minimal set. Even in lockdown we saw the wonderful adaption in 2020 in streamed theatre of the book by Henry Filloux-Bennett, the artistic director of the Lawrence Batley and staged at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester. So, it was perhaps inevitable that Reading Rep should seek to celebrate the opening of its new venue with another adaption of Oscar Wilde’s work.
The remnants of the Watermill production of The Picture of Dorian Grey can be seen as Phoebe Eclair Powell’s evolves her script with director Owen Horsley, to blend in Oscar Wilde’s own life story from acclaimed author to ostracised invalid as the book was used as evidence against him in his trial for gross indecency. They seek to emphasise the change from Victorian morality to the 2017 pardon by the Queen of men charged under the abolished law by exposing the queer undertones of the novel and challenging the audience to embrace the queer narrative. As a result, we are presented with three interwoven themes played by three performers in a bold but at times confusing and outspoken exploration of the story.
