The Trials of Oscar Wilde

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'I am one of those who are made for exceptions, not for laws.' - Oscar Wilde

Thursday 14 February 1895 was the triumphant opening night of The Importance of Being Earnest and the zenith of Oscar Wilde's career. Four days later, he arrived at his club to find a card from the Marquis of Queensbury which was famously misspelt: 'To Oscar Wilde - posing as a Somdimite' . Egged on by his lover (and Queensbury's son) Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde took legal action against the Marquis who was arrested for criminal libel. So began a dizzying series of events which saw Wilde go from prosecutor to defendant to disgraced prisoner in less than 100 days.

But what happened during the trials and what did Wilde say? Was he harshly treated or the author of his own downfall? Using the original words as spoken in court (including the incendiary cross-examination between Sir Edward Carson and Wilde) we can feel what it was like to be in the company of a genius, as this less than ideal husband was tragically reduced to a man of no importance.

Touring to 45 venues all over the UK from May to July 2014. Official tour dates will be announced here soon!

'"The Love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name" and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it.' - Wilde's speech from the dock of The Old Bailey, April 1895.

The script has been co-written with Merlin Holland who is Oscar Wilde's grandson and author of 'The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde'.

For more information visit http://www.hawthornetheatre.co.uk/performance-the-trials-of-oscar-wilde-188/