Serious businessOscar Wilde, Richard Nixon, and Real-Life In Baghdad September 19,
2007 3:26:48 PM
REACHING OUT: Joe Wilson, Jr. in Trinity Rep’s All the King’s Men.
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Playwright and director Moisés Kaufman likes to say that Oscar Wilde was the first performance artist, in that the notorious esthete, wit, and libertine lived a life ever on self-conscious public display. That’s the sort of clarifying insight that he brings to
GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE
, which 2nd Story Theatre is staging September 28 through October 28.
Displaying behavior that by today’s standards isn’t very shocking outside the Bible Belt, the Irish playwright in 1895 was twice brought to trial on a charge of “gross indecency” for homosexual relationships with the younger Lord Alfred Douglas and others. He was convicted and imprisoned for two years at hard labor.
If those events weren’t dramatic enough, there is the fact that he prompted his own legal strait; he brought a libel suit against Douglas’s father after the man accused him of sodomy. The resulting trial indicated that the charge was accurate, leading to his two indictments. He fell victim to his own self-righteous indignation as much as to the Victorian Age.
One of the things that director Ed Shea likes about the play is that it reminds him of the theatrical approach of Trinity Rep founder Adrian Hall. “It’s unpredictable storytelling, the way it flips back and forth in time,” Shea said. “It gives you a little snippet of something, then rushes forward and then goes back and picks up the action. The way the narration is worked in, that kind of thing really reminded me of Adrian’s style.”
He also appreciates that playwright Kaufman made clear how Wilde’s faulty judgments made him his own worst enemy.
“He didn’t take what was going on very seriously,” he said of the first trial. “He was caught up in the idea of who he was, almost that his intellect and his fame made him untouchable.”
Wilde soon learned otherwise. Upon release from prison, his health and reputation shattered, he died three years later.
Moises Kaufman also wrote, with other members of the Tectonic Theater Project, The Laramie Project. That was based on the 1998 Wyoming murder of Matthew Shepard by two homophobic men who lured him from a bar. He wrote Gross Indecency in 1997.
The following 2nd Story production of the season will be William Gibson’s
THE BUTTERFINGERS ANGEL, MARY & JOSEPH, HEROD THE NUT & THE SLAUGHTER OF 12 HIT CAROLS IN A PEAR TREE: A CHRISTMAS ENTERTAINMENT
(November 16 through December 16). Reverent in its own way, the play humorously humanizes the story of Christmas and its message of love and sacrifice.
The 20th-anniversary production of
ALL THE KING’S MEN
, adapted by Adrian Hall from the Robert Penn Warren novel, continues through October 21 at Trinity Repertory Company, the theme of demagogic politics sounding as fresh as ever. Next at Trinity is a play they commissioned,
MEMORY HOUSE
, by Kathleen Tolan (November 30 through January 6). It’s about a woman whose dance career has been replaced by dull office work; her adopted 18-year-old daughter is not the only one questioning everything. And don’t overlook the Brown/Trinity Consortium production of Tennessee Williams’s CAMINO REAL (October 4 through 7) and
ELECTRA
(November 15 through 18).
The other big house in town, Providence Performing Arts Center, is presenting the musical comedy
THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
(November 13 through 18). The Tony Award winner, about six young competitors accompanied by grown-ups, will make you question who is more mature. Disney’s popular
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
, about a basketball star and a shy newcomer trying out for a school production, runs November 20 through 25. Come December 4 through 9,
CIRQUE DREAMS: JUNGLE FANTASY
will present aerialists, contortionists, puppeteers, and such on stage.
After
THE ELEPHANT MAN
concludes its run on October 7 at the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, Russell Lees’s NIXON’S NIXON arrives October 25 through November 18. The play imagines what might have taken place the night before Richard Nixon announced his resignation, when the president had Secretary of State Henry Kissinger come to the White House to chat.
Washington politics also comes into play at URI Theatre in David Hare’s
STUFF HAPPENS
(October 11 through 21). That memorable statement by Donald Rumsfeld during the looting of Baghdad sets the tone for this behind-the-scenes version of actual historical events. On November 1 through December 9, URI will stage
LITTLE WOMEN
(book by Allan Knee, Music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein), based on the semi-autobiographical novel of Louisa May Alcott, in which sisters Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth have their own family adventures, with the Civil War hushed in the background.
Things get farcical when Providence College presents Michael Frayn’s
NOISES OFF
(October 26 through November 4), the hilarious backstage comedy, and Rhode Island College offers the classic comedy
YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU
, by Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman (September 26 through 30) and the bittersweet
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
, adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey by Dale Wasserman (November 14 through 18).
Come October 18 through 28, Brown University Theatre will lighten the Waterman Street atmosphere with the musical comedy
CITY OF ANGELS
(music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel, book by Larry Gelbart), set in the glitzy Hollywood of the 1940s. Things stay funny but acquire a serious twist when Brown presents the ingenious Sarah Ruhl’s
MELANCHOLY PLAY
(November 8 through 18), about a young woman who . . . well, let’s just say that her effects on people include her hairdresser turning into an almond.
At Perishable Theatre, the world premiere of Christine Evans’s
WEIGHTLESS
runs October 25 through November 11. The play is somewhat dark and quite absurd, politically and satirically. It’s set in the comfortable home of a wealthy family on what is only known as the Island. Living in a penthouse, they are at war with gravity and other natural necessities that even cosmetic surgery can’t permanently avert. A husband looking for love turns into a chicken, the maid loses all physical proof of her gender as well as her memory and language, and so on.
Providence Black Repertory Company is staging Trevor Rhone’s
TWO CAN PLAY
(October 4 through November 11). It’s set in Kingston, Jamaica, around 1980, when bullets are flying and residents are fleeing. This is a romantic comedy, though, in which Jim and Gloria consider leaving their war-torn island for America, but discover that dreams sometimes disintegrate in the face of reality. The company will stage
TABANCA
(December 7 through 9), a workshop production developed and performed by the ’07-’08 Black Rep Affiliate Artists, directed by Donald W. King as part of the Afro-Diaspora Project. In Pawtucket in an October run yet to be announced, Mixed Magic will be doing August Wilson’s
FENCES
.
The Rhode Island Theatre Ensemble (
RITE
) will present Leopold Lewis’s
THE BELLS
(November 1 through 17). The 1833 Christmas story has been reset to 1933, to coincide with the tensions leading up to World War II. Roger Williams Theatre is staging the Noel Coward comedy
HAY FEVER
(October 5 through 13) and the anonymously written medieval tale
EVERYMAN
(November 9 through 17).
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Local motion
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PBRC’s Two Can Play finds a moving balance
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URI finds humor at the White House
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A loaf of bread, a glass of wine
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RWU Theatre’s frisky Hay Fever
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2nd Story’s Gross Indecency
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All you can meat
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David Wilson's wry offerings
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Trinity Rep’s All the King’s Men is a masterpiece
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