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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > February > 22 > Entry
Review: ‘An Ideal Husband’
Would that Oscar Wilde could be a media pundit for our times. The ultra-clever Victorian wordsmith and incisive observer of human behavior could inject some sorely needed wit and ironic humor into today’s culture of unceasing and shallow chatter.
Alright we can’t resurrect Wilde the man. But we do have Austin Shakespeare’s current smart and charming production of “An Ideal Husband,” Wilde’s comedy of blackmail and political scandal, to enchant us with — and remind us of how timely and relevant Wilde’s criticism of politics and society is today.
A co-production with the University of Texas’ theater program, and directed by Austin Shakespeare artistic director Ann Ciccolella, this “Ideal Husband” snaps thanks to uniformly sharp acting. And played in the round in the Long Center’s Rollins Studio Theatre (the first production to take advantage of the black box theater’s flexibility), Wilde’s intrigue-filled drawing room comedy clips along briskly. And sumptuous period costumes by Abbey Graf aptly suggest the materialistic milieu.
A rising young member of parliament, Sir Robert Chiltern (Mark Scheibmeir) has the ideal career, the ideal adoring wife (Sydney Andrews) and the ideal society ranking in the hyper class-conscious London of the late Victorian era where, just like today, politics is celebrity.
But all of Sir Robert’s social and political eminence is suddenly endangered when the scheming Mrs. Cheveley (Verity Branco) — a mysterious woman from his wife’s past — threatens to blackmail him and expose the youthful act of corruption that leveraged his fortune.
“Everybody turns out to be somebody else,” Wilde’s one-liner filled script quips.
Indeed. The ambitious upstanding Sir Robert isn’t exactly what he seems. And to rescue his career, marriage and social standing he must rely on best friend, Lord Goring (Shaun Patrick Tubbs), a dandy who spends his days dressing fastidiously for one silly social event after the other. Yet for all his foppery and carefree lifestyle, it’s Goring who saves the situation thanks to his supreme understanding of the follies of human nature, particularly the vagaries of love.
Branco makes a devilish icy beauty of the kniving Mrs. Cheveley while Scheibmeir’s Sir Robert is suitably full of a combination supreme self-regard and total naiveté.
But it’s Tubbs, one of five UT graduate student actors in the show, who shines brightest as Goring, combing impeccable comedic timing with a dollop of psychological complexity to make the dandy Goring well-rounded.
“Ambition is unscrupulous always,” Goring observes. Indeed. More than a century after Wilde penned his satire of political ambition, its incisive observations still ring true.
“An Ideal Husband” plays 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 3p.m. Sunday at Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center, 711 W. Riverside Dr. $20-$32. www.austinshakespeare.org.
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By Lucien Douglas
February 23, 2009 11:31 PM | Link to this
It is a unique opportunity to bring our performance work off-campus and into the Austin community. The experience for our students is rich and rare as they enjoy a three-week run in a classic play housed in the exquisite Long Center for the Performing Arts. This collaboration seems very right. Hook ‘em! Lucien Douglas, Associate Professor of Theatre & Dance