We sat down for an exclusive interview with Ramin Gray, the director, whose show An Ideal Husband performing at the White Bear Theatre, 5-11 Jan. Tickets here.
This production by the newly formed Broken Nose Theatre blends British and European theatrical traditions, bringing together actors from leading Moscow theatres and eminent British drama schools, including the former Head of Drama Centre, this production explores the tension between power and authenticity, the perils of cancel culture, and the problem of sexism.
You’ve said you weren’t sure avant-garde theatre was still possible in England. What convinced you to take that risk with An Ideal Husband?
The avant-garde is now a historical phenomenon, wrapped up in a questionable idea of ‘progress’. Did it ever really exist in England? I don’t think so. The financial rewards and glamorous pull of the West End effectively squashed a wide-range of alternative approaches to making theatre. I still find it astonishing how often apparently avant-garde companies — Punchdrunk or Improbable — end up making enormous amounts of money in the commercial sector. Avant-garde in this country has become synonymous with R&D, an entirely corporate idea. The avant-garde has flourished either where there has been generous state subsidy (mainland Europe) or, ironically, in the philanthropically generous USA (Robert Wilson, the Wooster Group). England, as usual, falls between two stools. So, if you want to apply the term ‘avant-garde’ to our show, well, we have the trappings of it because of genuine poverty and an unusually stimulating cross-cultural mix of performers. Come judge for yourselves.
Your production strips away Victorian polish, what do we discover about Wilde when the costumes and manners are no longer doing the work?
Most productions of these plays approximate a degree of Victoriana but when Wilde’s plays were premiered they were definitely contemporary in look and feel. So I’m not sure what’s to be gained from setting them in the past. On the contrary, it’s fascinating to let the lines do the work shorn of their habitual surroundings. What comes across strongly is the savagery of Wilde’s satire of the English and his powerfully coded plea for authenticity in sexual and gender relations. It feels effortlessly contemporary and deeply sceptical about the traditional heternormative marriage.
How did mixing British and Moscow-trained actors change the rhythm or politics of the room?
With actors who have trained and worked in Japan with Tadashi Suzuki, in Lithuania at the State Theatre, at Moscow Art Theatre School, LAMDA, RADA, Drama Centre (in its heyday) and Oxford University, we have a rich mix of competing traditions and approaches. We’ve purposefully accentuated the origins of company members. Hopefully, it creates a Verfremdungseffekt to highlight the performative nature of posh Englishness and heteronormativity, pressures that bore down heavily on Oscar Wilde.
What makes An Ideal Husband refuse to behave like a period piece?
If Wilde refuses to be a period piece it’s only because, even if the world has changed radically for gay men since 1895, many of the underlying social and political issues haven’t. One can take almost any line and find an analogue that sparks debate. A recurring theme during rehearsal has been the Epstein scandal, a story from the past that implicates powerful men in a compromising sexual vista of control and excess. It’s the plight of Sir Robert Chiltern and the play spins around this question. The idea of respectability in public life remains as powerful as ever, even if Trump and his cronies have done everything to buckle and twist it.
Is respectability still the most valuable currency in public life?