An Ideal Husband

I always enjoy an Oscar Wilde play, and the director had worked with the cast to ensure that the humour and wit in Oscar Wilde’s script was delivered. Each of the cast had their own individual characteristics which made them recognisable and convincing, and they had developed natural relationships which were relaxed and believable. All of the actors gave excellent performances from the lead principals to those with just small cameos. 

The use of received pronunciation by all the actors in their line delivery coupled with the wonderful period costumes which were absolutely fabulous and gave a feeling of opulent living which was perfect for the play and felt authentic for the period. The action flowed well with effective use of the staging and set pieces. 

The director had made the decision to cut some of the more extreme views regarding men and women feeling that these opinions were less relevant today and might be upsetting to modern audiences. This reduced the length of the play which with four acts can sometimes fall into the trap of feeling over-long. It did mean that the play lost a little of the more serious elements of the script and some of the strong contrasts between honour and dishonour, love and morality. However, having said that, the strong performances of the actors and the sharp direction kept the pace up to give performances that were very enjoyable and engaging.

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