While I am prepared to believe that somewhere out there such a creature exists, my personal experience tells me otherwise and it is clear that Oscar Wilde agrees with me, hence the ironic title of his wonderful play. I thought I had seen this on stage before, but then realised I hadn't and my knowledge of this work was based on the film starring Jeremy Northam, Cate Blanchett, Rupert Everett, Minnie Driver and Juliette Moore as Mrs Chevely.
Well of course the play is twice as long and, much though I enjoyed the film, seeing the full play in the theatre is a totally different experience. Sir Robert Chiltern is held up as the beau ideal, the perfect husband, a politician with integrity and moral probity, a rare creature indeed. He has a glittering career, everyone loves and admires him, his star is in the ascendant and then Mrs Cheveley turns up. She is a woman of dubious character and is determined to blackmail him and bring him to ruin and destruction by the use of a letter in her possession in which it is clear he sold a state secret many years ago in order to make his fortune and boost his career. Nothing much changes in Parliament it would seem....
His wife was at school with Mrs Chevely and has nothing good to say about her and yet, while it is obvious that the lady is a scheming minx who will stop at nothing, she is a fascinating character and played to the hilt by Samantha Bond, better known as Miss Moneypenny in the Bond movies, dressed wonderfully well in sumptuous rich fabrics emphasising her sophistication and glamour. By contrast Lady Chiltern was costumed in subtler, somewhat drab colours, all of which added to emphasis her seriousness and goodness. She is not a character with whom one can feel much empathy - sometimes goodness can be boring.
Lord Goring, the part played by Rupert Everett in the movie, is seemingly an idle, effete man about town who glories in doing nothing much at all. It is a gift of a part, full of marvellously witty lines and it is he who gets all the laughs. But underneath that careless exterior beats the heart of a true friend and a much wiser and thoughtful person than we are led to believe and it is he who is the one who brings about the resolution to the situation. I am finding it hard to review An Ideal Husband and to try and get across just how much I admired the writing and the depth of feeling behind it - on the surface a frothy comedy full of bon mots and attitudes, but underneath real heartache and pain which is reflected in the superb acting of the entire cast. I am linking further reviews for you to read which explain it all so much better than I.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/review-23897024-oscars-humanity-in-an-ideal-husband.do
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/nov/11/an-ideal-husband-review
A lovely afternoon. I was going with a good friend - we both survived working for a certain law firm and lived to tell the tale - and my daughter Helen also came along as we had a spare ticket. James was left at home to do some father/daughter bonding and we had a great time. When attending the theatre I always find the first fifteen minutes or so slightly unsettling. When going to the movies, the film is up there and you just sit and watch - in a theatre I always feel somewhat awkward to be so close to real people, not celluloid ones and it takes me a while to attune to the experience. Once this is done, total absorption sets in and I am left filled with admiration at the acting and stagecraft of those taking part. As we left the theatre I was quite overwhelmed with the thought that in two hours time they were going to come back and do it all over again.
Coming up in April, when I am back from Australia, we plan to go and see Blithe Spirit with Alison Steadman as Madame Arcati. That is something to look forward to...
