Wittier than thou

Francois Tredoux

Work is the Curse of the Drinking Classes
An “entertainment” based on the life and works of Oscar Wilde
Text by Neil Titley

With Jeroen Kranenburg

Klein Libertas Theater, Stellenbosch.
9 to 11 October 2003.

The life of Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde’s is worthy of celebration — even if you’re not gay — and this one-man “entertainment” starring Jeroen Kranenburg celebrates the life with apt wit, style and faded elegance. It sets Wilde in a Parisian café, two years before his death in 1900, dazzling the audience with his sparkling bon mots. He talks, he gossips, he admonishes, he roars his disapproval, he whispers his confidences — he revels in words and their power.

It is a huge life — it is larger than life. To encompass Wilde in 60 minutes is well-nigh impossible. There is so much material with which to work. And so many previous texts: Peter Ackroyd’s 1983 novelisation of Wilde’s last years in Paris, The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde; Richard Ellman’s monumental Pulitzer-prize winning biography; Neil Bartlett’s almost hagiographic 1989 novel, Who was that man?; and Stephen Fry’s portrayal of Wilde in Brian Gilbert’s 1997 film version.

And yet this text works, even when compared with its illustrious predecessors. It works because this is Wilde in his own words, and only him. The other characters that played such important roles in his life — his mother Speranza, his wife Constance, and Bosie — feature only incidentally, in passing references. The text celebrates Wilde’s iconoclasm, his unwillingness to accept cant and rhetoric, and, in a final act of defiance, his loathing of Victorian morals and the claustrophobic religious life that was its source.

Jeroen Kranenburg’s seasoned performance captures the pathos and the loss of energy of the last years. Yet in the flashbacks there’s the verve, the electrifying energy that underlies Wilde’s wit, the grandness of stature, the booming voice that makes all forms of stupidity wither in its wake. Kranenburg’s 17 years’ experience in various aspects of theatre in Europe shows in his easy stage technique. His comic timing is perfect for Wilde’s paradoxes.

This play is not “politically relevant”. It does not say anything about apartheid or poverty or AIDS. It just celebrates art and wit and the importance of being honest, even if that honesty means turning every conceivable accepted wisdom upside down.

17 October 2003

boontoe / to the top

© Kopiereg in die ontwerp en inhoud van hierdie webruimte behoort aan LitNet, uitgesluit die kopiereg in bydraes wat berus by die outeurs wat sodanige bydraes verskaf. LitNet streef na die plasing van oorspronklike materiaal en na die oop en onbeperkte uitruil van idees en menings. Die menings van bydraers tot hierdie werftuiste is dus hul eie en weerspieël nie noodwendig die mening van die redaksie en bestuur van LitNet nie. LitNet kan ongelukkig ook nie waarborg dat hierdie diens ononderbroke of foutloos sal wees nie en gebruikers wat steun op inligting wat hier verskaf word, doen dit op hul eie risiko. Media24, M-Web, Ligitprops 3042 BK en die bestuur en redaksie van LitNet aanvaar derhalwe geen aanspreeklikheid vir enige regstreekse of onregstreekse verlies of skade wat uit sodanige bydraes of die verskaffing van hierdie diens spruit nie. LitNet is ’n onafhanklike joernaal op die Internet, en word as gesamentlike onderneming deur Ligitprops 3042 BK en Media24 bedryf.