Sometimes you go to a show because you know someone in the cast or crew. Other times you may go because the concept or subject intrigues you. And, still other times you attend a show because you’ve had good experiences with the company before, and, while the subject matter might be outside your usual taste or may even be unknown to you, you go in hopes that previous successes will repeat themselves. The latter was my experience this time around with this production about Oscar Wilde by Walking Shadow.
As a non-theatre major, Oscar Wilde has been nothing but a name to me. I’ve never read any of his plays nor seem them produced. He doesn’t come up in daily conversations, and when people allude to his work, I can only chuckle and politely pretend I know the context. Outside of theatre and lit majors, he’s not part of the liberal arts education canon. Fortunately, this play required no prerequisite knowledge of the subject for understanding.
But, while stellar performances, wonderful design, and creative staging abound, this production was ultimately entirely unengaging, and I found myself greatly disappointed. It felt as if each element (acting, lighting, staging, etc.) were all parallel entities that never intersected to create a cohesive and interesting narrative. Oh, and drama? Missing entirely. There was no action—no plot. The show consisted mostly of dramatized texts loosely threaded into the re-enactment of the trials surrounding Oscar Wilde and his alleged homosexuality (or “posing sodomy”).
Most intrusive was the author’s obnoxious citations of each and every line, adding greatly to the feeling that I was in a high school classroom and not a theatre at all. Sometimes it was executed well, but it always drew me out of the performances, requiring me to attempt to re-enter the world each and every time an actor proclaimed “from a letter written at the Savoy hotel,” for example. The experience was more akin to watching the History Channel or Biography, in which short dramatic vignettes pepper what is mostly a narrator voiceover with still images scrolling across the screen.
The only genuine interest—and, my guess, the impetus for Walking Shadow to produce the play—is the brilliant quotable quotes of Wilde and his extraordinary view of the world, morality, and sexuality. His existentialist philosophy about the inseparable natures of art and life is beautiful and admirable. However, simply curling up with one of his works on the couch and drinking a steaming mug of chamomile tea may have been more effective.
The all-male cast (Victorian tongue-in-cheek?) performed with great dexterity, as most of the ensemble was required to take on different roles, with differing accents and even genders. Craig Johnson as Oscar Wilde was simply entrancing as he took the subject and, like a true artist, moved only within the mannerisms and tones of his character – with great nuance to Wilde’s androgyny. But, with all the talent on stage, the players never interacted with one another in a real sense. The conflict and passion of the story seemed vacuumed out by the biographical presentation of the events. It was as two-dimensional as a book.
Director (Amy Rummenie) had her work cut out for her to even attempt to make this an interesting piece. And, she almost succeeded. There were glimmers of brilliance in staging and lighting, but, ultimately, because I was never drawn into the world, this was a show I could take or leave.
3.5 out of 5 stars. A wonderfully talented cast perform a plot-deprived script with only a few technical issues in the opening night performance. A few lines stumbles from each of the cast along with issues finding their light, particularly center stage and on the platform, in which both locations have awkward shadows cast by stage or venue obstacles.
Walking Shadow Theatre Company’s “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde” is playing through May 4th at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage (711 W. Franklin Ave, Minneapolis)
From the Back Row 