An Ideal Husband

Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy brings a multitude of laughs in Matthew Hobbs’ well-directed Villanova Players production. This oft revived, ever-topical play touches on themes that never go out of fashion - insider trading, honor, corruption and a money-mad society. Add in blackmail, affairs of the heart, and a good dose of Wildean wit and this Edwardian romp is as up-to-date as yesterday.

Sir Robert Chiltern, a rising politician, was guilty of insider-trading as a young man and his indiscretion, which resulted in a personal financial windfall, was the source of his current wealth. When his wife’s school contemporary Mrs Laura Cheveley tries to blackmail him for his indiscretion, his best friend and confidante, Lord Alfred Goring, steps in and saves the day with the sudden appearance of a diamond brooch.

It’s all mannered, reeks of the period, with Wilde’s skewering of the English upper-classes a treat.

As the well-dressed dandy Goring, Oscar Kennedy Smith walks away with the play. His irreverent throwaway of the character’s narcissistic traits was thoroughly disarming, and with perfect timing and a particular twinkle in his eye, Smith got laughs and also showed the depth and moral fibre of the man. The ‘buttonhole’ sequence was a joy. Troy Bullock played Chiltern as someone unapologetic for his past discretions, but struggling with the secrecy and exposure that could ruin his career and marriage. It was a solid convincing performance.

The opportunistic Mrs Cheveley was in good hands with Olivia Pinwill, who embodied the new ‘Victorian woman’ with a flamboyance appropriate to her red-caped stylish costume. A willful femme fatale, Pinwill captured the ruthlessness with guile. Nathalie Cattaneo’s Lady Gertrude was worshipful in her adulation of her husband, shattered when her pedestal comes crashing down, and stoic accepting the reality of the situation.

Lillian Dowdell brought spunk and spark to Mabel, the bewiskered Barry Haworth was a pompous and stuffy Earl of Caversham, whilst Elizabeth Morris reveled in the gossiping Lady Markby, despite costumes that were bizarrely eccentric which the character is not. As Mrs Marchmont and the Countess of Basildon, Linda Stevenson and Alison Clark got their share of laughs, as did Ian Stevenson as the French attaché, Vicompte de Nanjac.

Jayden Hobbs’ especially composed piano music set the scenes well and was appropriately languid and classical in feel.

Peter Pinne