No doubt the intimate venue at the Manoel Theatre will prove to be the perfect setting for Patrick Marley’s semi-dramatised narrative: Wilde at Heart, a fascinating insight into the rise to fame and descent into scandal of one of the most celebrated and controversial literary figures of the nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde.
This thought-provoking performance exposes and explores the inextricable link between Oscar Wilde’s life and works in a collage of his meetings with people who influenced his life, loves and works.
This outstanding production illustrates the chequered history of the flamboyant playwright with candour, emotion and humour.
Marley’s performance at the Manoel Theatre on Friday, 17 and Saturday, 18 February will be a remarkable one, judging by past performances, contrasting the dashing man-about-town with the broken, soul-searching prisoner, and making the most of the inevitable Wilde witticisms throughout. Marley’s is a marathon undertaking, but riveting and sympathetic, giving a new insight into Wilde, the man, in its revelation of the triumphs and tragedy that characterised him.
Marley will be strongly supported by Genevieve Allenbury who plays the key women in Wilde’s life, and who will splendidly convey the charisma of his mother, the bewilderment of his wife – the mother of their two sons, a friend who supported him and another who was embarrassed by the scandal of his imprisonment for homosexuality.
Thus, Wilde’s life will unfold, through his early life in Dublin, to Magdalen College, Oxford and then to London where his greatest triumphs and worst personal disasters were played out.
“I knew I should create a great sensation,” wrote Wilde, and his life was nothing if not that.
Patrick Marley and Genevieve Allenbury will bring this great sensation to life for their audience in this spell-binding production, which has toured widely in Europe, America, Saudi Arabia and the Far East, achieving success on every occasion.
Reservations for Wilde at Heart, which is presented by De Mussel and Co., can be made at the Manoel Theatre booking office, tel. 2124-6389, email bookings@teatrumanoel. com.mt