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The Importance of Being Oscar

Author: Micheal MacLiammoir

Reviewer: David Roberts for Theatre Reviews Limited

Micheal MacLiammoir's wordy "The Importance of Being Oscar" has been around for almost forty years, having first appeared on Broadway in the mid-1960s. On the centenary of Oscar Wilde's death, The Irish Repertory Company has decided to produce MacLiammoir's piece to honor the irrepressible and ever-interesting Oscar.

With the spate of Oscar remembrances and reconstructions the last few years (all approaching this ultimate centenary year), audiences who care deeply and passionately about Wilde (and there is every reason to) know all there is to know about Ireland's most popular playwright and then some. And this fact ultimately has a deleterious effect upon this reprise of "The Importance of Being Oscar."

American audiences in particular know the details of Oscar Wilde's life in its minutiae. No matter how diligently the outstanding actor Niall Buggy struggles (and he struggles far too much far too often) with the script under Charlotte Moore's brilliant direction, the piece just doesn't have the guts to embolden and enthrall a contemporary audience.

And this is a pity. The design of this show is not only eye-catching but solid in every way. But the script contains lengthy sections of text from court records, scripts, personal letters, and reminiscences. The long quotation from "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" in the first act is almost sleep-inducing. The choice to read Wilde's correspondence to Bosie and Robbie from his imprisonment and later isolation and depression is simply to expose the audience to far too much read text in a live theatre performance. Mr. Buggy often loses his place and, quite frankly, he is not to be blamed.

There are moments of joyful intermission when the audience is reminded of Wilde's impressions of Colorado or challenged to wonder what Wilde would have said were he permitted to speak in the court room following his famous trial. We long for more of that "short-sound-byte" kind of revelation.

Niall Buggy reminds us that after Oscar Wilde met Bosie he wrote "no more poetry." That is the kind of short phrase (three words!) that refreshingly delivered by Mr. Buggy is worth volumes of text which an audience member can read at home or in the library.

The Irish Repertory Company has given New York audiences years of unparalleled live theatre and it will again and again in the future. Let us forgive this indiscretion and wait for more genius from Ms. Moore and her irrepressible band of creative colleagues. If only the courts of Great Britain had been as generous.

Reviewed on Thursday, February 1, 2001

Starring Niall Buggy. Written by Micheal MacLiammoir. Directed and designed by Charlotte Moore. Costume design by David Toser; lighting design by Jason A. Cina; sound design by Murmod, Inc.; stage manager, Thomas J. Gates. Presented by The Irish Repertory Company (Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director and Ciaran O'Reilly, Producing Director) at The Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. Performance schedule: Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are $35.00 and $40.00 and are available at the Irish Repertory box office (address above) or by calling (212) 727-2737.

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