WILD ABOUT WILDE

The West End's recent Oscar Wilde love-in continues hot on the heels of The Importance of Being Earnest with this thrilling new three-hander by none other than the great man's own grandson Merlin Holland, together with John O'Connor. Following the flamboyant playwright's triumphant opening night of "Ernest" in February 1895, it took less than three months later for Wilde to fall from grace and become a pariah of society, through his arrest and two-year incarceration for libel and homosexual offences under Victorian law.

We hear for ourselves the very words that were spoken during his three highly publicised court appearances that bring this tortured genius back to life, and see behind the witty comebacks and asanine observations to reveal a lonely soul, trapped in a marriage of (in)convenience.

Having recently toured the UK to critical acclaim, "Trials" plays the Trafalgar Studios for a very limited period, with John Gorick playing Wilde, and two other actors switching between roles as barristers, rent boys and chambermaids. With tension interspersed with wit, we ask ourselves the ultimate question: Was he a victim of societal persecution - or ultimately the architect of his own misfortune?