CityLife

An Ideal Husband

An Ideal Husband

An Ideal Husband
Altrincham Garrick
March 9, 2010

Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband is actually about a not-so-ideal husband who wants to hide his past.

It is a witty play with plenty of clever one liners and the current expenses scandal makes the play relevant today.

It centres on the self-opinionated Sir Robert Chiltern, a prestigious MP with a flawless reputation.

We soon learn via a letter in the possession of the vicious Mrs Cheveley, a former school friend of his doting wife, that in his youth he sold a government secret for profit. The revelation of this misdemeanour could cost him his reputation, his job and even his marriage.

To put it bluntly, he is being blackmailed by a woman who does so to gain from a scheme she intends him, by fair means or foul, to back.

I like the way John Keen portrays the trapped Sir Robert. Although he has been a scoundrel you feel yourself hoping he will get away with it.  

In a fine performance, Ali Davenport presents the epitomy of a scheming female as her Mrs Cheveley slowly closes  on her prey.

In the middle of it all is the foppish Lord Goring played in a delightfully extravert and flippant way by Bryn Thomas. A friend of the Chilterns and once engaged to Mrs Cheveley, he is the one who brings the threads of conspiracy together.  

Ros Greenwood as Lady Chiltern, the woman who thought she had found the ideal husband seems, despite her attempts to push Sir Robert further up the political ladder, to have genuine affection for him.   Her face is a picture of disbelief when she discovers the truth about him.

Consistent with the high standard of the acting is the high standard of the constantly changing costumes. They are a credit to Mike Shaw and his team. This is the Garrick at its best.