An Ideal Husband

Director: Priscilla Jackman
Set Designer: Gabrielle Clarke
Costume Designer: Matthew Raven
Lighting Designer: Peter Young
Sound Designer: Noah Ivulich
Movement: Samantha Chester
Voice and Dialect Coach: Luzita Fereda
Production Photographer: Jon Green
Cast list: Alexander Dilley, Ben Chapple, Bryn Chapman Parish, Camila Ponte Alvarez, Hamish White, Jessica Veitch, Jonathan Lagudi, Julia Kok, Justin Bell, Kaya-Marley Jarrett, Kyle Barrett, Lachlan Stevenson, Lucinda Howes, Mariama Whitton, Peter Thurnwald, Poppy Lynch, Ruby Maishman, Saskia Archer

Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts

Date: August 2019

About the project

Director’s Program Notes:

Written 126 years ago, An Ideal Husband remains a love letter to forgiveness, human fragility and unconditional love. Famously drawing parallels with the tragic events of Wilde’s own life, this play offers provocations into notions of identity and truth with a depth of insight, that is perhaps, unparalleled in any of his other plays.

In approaching this production, a driving ambition as a company, was to deeply understand and immerse ourselves Wilde’s unique style and aesthetic – yet, remain acutely aware that we are creating a new work, for a 21^st century audience.

Wilde is notoriously difficult to perform, requiring virtuosic command of the muscular language, dramatic rhythms and a razor-sharp timing to balance the simultaneous wit and the emotional depth he commands. Grounded in the technical rigor the style demands, our version of An Ideal Husband, however, is not a museum piece. Our Chilterns and Cheveleys and Gorings exist in a world which is of the period and yet, also must speak to the now.

We were interested to explore through design and space itself, the underlying provocations that reverberate throughout the text. This production seeks to theatrically interrogate questions around perception? The private verses the public? What lies beneath? How does the past continue to inform our present? How do we recognise ourselves, beyond our construction of self in the world? How do we frame ourselves? How do others frame us? And how do we free ourselves from these constraints to live an authentic self?

We have seen this production as an exquisite opportunity to celebrate our role within the long lineage of Oscar Wilde’s tradition – yet also challenge ourselves (from design, to performance to construction of set, lighting and sound elements) – to create a pulsating new work of innovation as a contemporary company for a contemporary audience. One which we hope Oscar Wilde himself, would relish.