Running Wilde with an 'Ideal'

In 1895, Oscar Wilde premiered "An Ideal Husband," a play that kneads judgment into issues of blackmail, corruption and integrity. That same year, authorities arrested Wilde for "gross indecency"— code for homosexuality — and producers removed his name from the play, which continued its successful run in London.

Even without that mean little twist of back story, "An Ideal Husband" remains evocative and entertaining. Hollywood hotshots thought enough of the story to make it a movie several times over. There are too many stage productions to count.

This month, American Stage Theatre Company can add its name to that lengthy roster. It is the second leg of a co-production with Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre in Massachusetts, where the play was staged in July and August under the direction of Todd Olson.

According to Olson, it's impossible not to compare the fictional storyline with Wilde's real life.

"Seeing it through the filter of how we know it turned it out makes it more interesting," said Olson, American Stage's producing artistic director.

Wilde wrote "An Ideal Husband" in 1893, setting the story in that year. Sir Robert Chiltern, a member of the House of Commons, and his wife host a party. During the evening, guest Mrs. Cheveley attempts to blackmail Sir Robert into supporting a financial scheme to build a canal in Argentina.

She has proof that Chiltern gave insider information about investing in the Suez Canal to Baron Arnheim, Cheveley's late lover. Chiltern's wealth and career was born from that crime, though everyone still believe him to be an "ideal" husband and civil servant.

The plot grows more complicated when a letter appears that can be read as a love note or a plea for help. The final act finds resolution through the help of Chiltern's friend, Lord Goring, though not without altered notions of perfection.

Richard Watson, who's been cast as Sir Chiltern, said the play shows how easily people justify their trespasses and hold fast to ideologies to avoid compromise. Basically, sometimes it's easier to continue a lie than reveal the truth, which was Wilde's strategy regarding his sexuality.