Writer: Oscar Wilde
Director: Nicholai La Barrie
Sir Robert Chiltern (Chiké Okonkwo) is a rich, successful politician, respected in elite circles and devoted to his wife. Nicholai La Barrie’s compelling new production of An Ideal Husband opens as Robert and his wife Gertrude (beautifully poised Tamara Lawrance) are hosting a charity ball, introduced by the voice of DJ Trevor Nelson. But Sir Robert’s wealth was built on a piece of youthful insider trading, which Mrs Cheveley, a glamorous new arrival in London, threatens to expose. Lyric Hammersmith’s Associate Director La Barrie sets Oscar Wilde’s London-based tragicomedy in the contemporary city, but the script is barely changed until the end, and Wilde’s concerns are still uncomfortably current.
As Robert’s world begins to crumble, his closest friend Lord Goring, a flamboyant dandy, full of cynical Wildean witticisms about modern life, reveals surprising depths of compassion and morality. Goring is played by Jamael Westman, celebrated for an Olivier-nominated stint as the title role in the West End production of Hamilton. Arriving at the ball in heels and a lace-tailed coat, he manages simultaneously to command the stage and provide ironic asides on other characters. Wilde comments in the original text: “He plays with life, and … is fond of being misunderstood. It gives him a post of vantage.” The role is sometimes seen as representing the playwright himself and is often played as queer, overtly or covertly. Like Rupert Everett in the 1999 film adaptation, Westman gives Goring an anarchic panache and charm, underpinned by true integrity. His chameleonic and deliberate shifts of accent suggest a man exploring multiple aspects of his complex identity: age, race, sexuality, marital status.
Westman is well matched by an energetic Tiwa Lade as Robert’s free-spirited younger sister Mabel Chiltern, rocking a series of lacy, embroidered or feather-trimmed short gowns. Mabel ironically challenges Goring’s father’s view of his son as good for nothing: “How can you say such a thing? Why, he rides in the Row at ten o’clock in the morning, goes to the Opera three times a week, changes his clothes at least five times a day, and dines out every night of the season. You don’t call that leading an idle life, do you?” Lade was a brilliant Hermia in last winter’s poorly rewritten Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and shines again in this production, whose director understands the difference between updating the spirit of a play and massacring it.
As with Max Webster’s 2024 Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre, there is a sense that a couple might understand each other well enough to transcend the straight expectations of their storyline. This show has other things in common with Webster’s ground-breaking production besides lavish design and reclaiming Wilde’s queer legacy. There’s the sense of how well stereotypically overbearing Caribbean parents can fit Wilde’s satirical script. Jeff Alexander’s hilarious Earl of Caversham, Goring’s father, is constantly correcting his ne’er-do-well son, telling him off for wasting time, complaining of draughts, and asking: “Engaged to be married yet?”
There are similarly pantomimic moments and show-stealing comedy servants. Emmanuel Akwafo plays both the Chilterns’ surly butler, Mason and Lord Goring’s camp valet, Phipps. In one scene, helping Goring arrange his buttonhole, Phipps has been agreeing to a series of Wildean comments (“Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.” “Yes, my lord”) and answers the next comment: “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance, Phipps,” with a smiling “Yes queen! – er – lord”. Other updates include music from groups like Soul II Soul and energetic dancing during scene changes. There’s a sprinkling of comically modernised references: mauve indie music, Obama, Hello magazine, necking Berocca for a hangover, or telling the butler repeatedly, “I appreciate you, Mason”.
Wilde’s pertinent dissection of truth and hypocrisy is heightened by a fusion of Edwardian style and contemporary glamour. Rajha Shakiry’s set and costume designs are a delight. Lord and Lady Chiltern are impeccable in suit and white dress both accented (on his lapel and her skirt) with matching insets of the same African fabric. As their lives unravel, so does their sartorial perfection. The designs are full of fresh and inventive details, contrasting colourful wraps with monochrome and layered ballgowns with Mrs Cheveley’s dressed-to-kill silky bronze sheath. Stylish Aurora Perrineau (incandescent as Riddy in KAOS on Netflix) is slightly stiff and underpowered as Mrs Cheveley, perhaps due to the strain of keeping up a British accent.
The play’s all-Black casting brings an extra depth to the excavations of power and privilege. For director La Barrie, the play explores “the contradictions that define us: love and betrayal, politics and family, forgiveness and redemption, morality and greed,” observing that: “A century after it was written, these themes feel as urgent as ever.”
Runs until 6 June 2026
