“Gross Indecency”, is a play about Oscar Wilde’s life which was written by Moises Kaufman. Kaufman wrote the play in 1997, however it was a two year process of writing. The play is a biography of Wilde’s court trials dealing with others trying to prove that he is gay.
In this production, there are many different characters but if need be, one person can play multiple characters as some did in Kaufman’s production. There are twenty four characters in the play, including eight narrators but not including the parts entitled, “others”. Most casts for this play are all men due to the fact that the character’s in the play are men. However, if putting this show on at Oklahoma State, there would have to be some flexibility due to lack of one gender
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One of the recipients of the letters was Douglas whose father, Lord Alfred Douglas of Queensberry, saw the letter and was very heated and turned Oscar Wilde in. Throughout these court cases, Wilde is being asked many questions which are referred back to the letters. When answering the questions, Wilde is a bit sarcastic and is not answering the questions to the full extent which makes things even more suspicious to the audience and jury. Douglas of Queensberry questioned Wilde as …show more content…
We know that Oscar is married and has children but these letters he has written to different men strike him as gay to some. During this time period, many disagreed with this act, especially Lord Alfred Douglas of Queensberry, one of Wilde’s partners father. Some may say this lead to the theme of hate for the fact that Lord Alfred Douglas of Queensberry despised Wilde for sending these letters to his son and having these feelings towards him (Polashuk, 2007).
Heroism may be a thematic issue as well (Polashuk, 2007). Oscar Wilde is trying to be a hero for his partner, Douglas by standing up to Lord Alfred Douglas of Queensberry about their relationship and feelings for each other. This causes issues, especially for Wilde who is taken to court and put down by Alfred of Queensberry.
As said before, the cast for, “Gross Indecency”, is very large but can be condensed. With twenty four parts, again, one person one need to play multiple roles. Kaufman’s production consisted of only nine cast members, this would be the ideal for an Oklahoma State Production as well. However, as stated before, it would have to be more unisex. For me, the ideal audience for, “Gross Indecency”, could be many different types of people, ones who are interested in Oscar Wilde’s life, one’s who are interested in conflict, and even a jury setting. This would be ideal for an Oklahoma
The characters in the comedy are not realistic, and those that could have been were transformed throughout the course of events depicted. The most trouble with the play, however, seems to come from the representation of the female characters, particularly in comparison with the males. It seems almost that the female characters are written off, rather than merely written out. The male characters of the play are given higher roles, and their characters are followed more faithfully, further proving its chauvinistic composition. The title of the play even suggests a sexist nature in its possible Elizabethan reference to the female genitalia. The play seems to reflect the common thought of its era concerning the social stat...
What makes a man a hero? Where lies the line which when crossed changes a mortal man into a legend? Is it at the altar at Canterbury? in the Minotaur’s labyrinth? or is it an age or a time? Does a man become a hero when he transforms from a boy to an adult? or when he stops being a man and becomes a martyr? Where are the heroes of 1993? In whom do the children of this age believe? Like whom do they strive to be? Kennedy, Lennon, and even Superman are dead. World leaders are mockeries of real men, more like Pilates than Thomas Mores. Pop culture’s icons change daily. It is interesting that nearly 600 years ago someone was writing about heroism in a way that can be understood today. The poet of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells a tale in which a man is proven to be a hero through the seemingly un-heroic decisions made in the course of numerous tests. Sir Gawain is a hero for the 21st century. He is tried and trapped, he is inundated with opportunities to fail and yet he does not lose. More importantly though, in the end he learns an essential, inescapable fact about himself and human nature.
Callaghan, Dympna. Shakespeare Without Women: Representing Gender and Race on the Renaissance Stage. New York, Routledge. 2000
many more. This was purposefully done in an attempt to make the audience relate to a certain character. In doing so, they could imagine that they were indeed a part of the play to some extent. As a result, these characters have significant religious meanings and serve as a form of inspiration to other women. This would mainly apply to those women who were in attendance. This would include women of all classes that simply wanted to watch a play.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray; For Love of the King. London: Routledge/Thoemmes Press, 1993.
Wilde’s didactic satire delves deep into the problems of society, highlighting to the audience all the flaws of human beings and their social obligations while keeping it light-hearted and enjoyable for audiences. The author’s mockery and satire of society, as seen in his play, is most likely stemmed from his lack of acceptance and frustration at the society he believes to be ‘proper’. Readers today laugh at the situations portrayed because they are satirical and humourous, but they also question the motives behind the character “Earnest” because they see that “earnest”, meaning seriousness or sincerity, is the one thing the characters most certainly do not portray. However, towards the end of the play, when all has come out, Jack states that “I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest” (Wilde 2000, p.358), which may in fact be the most blatantly satirical line of the play, and a great summation of the lies the play relied on. This explores Wilde’s use of double entendre as Jack lives a double life, alongside the use of an elaborate p...
The use of original practices, the costumes and male characters used to play the role of female characters are due to the different gender identity attributes and sexuality concerns from the play. Although the producer insists that the use of male characters to play female roles was mainly to show case the original set-up and forms of acting it can also be attributed to the producer wishing to raise different sexualities from the audience. The different actors who play the roles of females while they are male characters have been used by the producer to raise different sexualities since the heterosexual people in the audience view of the audience since gender as asserted by Bulman is performative rather than
However, the political impact this performance had in the 1980’s versus the year 2017 are polar opposites. When this play was first shown at the Public Theatre in New York City, the performance confronted the issue of AIDS and HIV in the United States in a way that was not as openly accepted as it is today. During the AIDS crisis in these years, the consensus between the mass population was that this epidemic was strictly only a “gay cancer.” This belief led to the lack of funding to help fight this cause and ended up causing it to spread even more rapidly. The political difference between these two times vary drastically, during the 1980’s it is clear that the lack to help the cause is linked with homophobia and was a large part of society; as it is clearly demonstrated by the lack of compassion for the gay community.
Along these lines, the life of Oscar Wilde and his novel, Dorian Gray can also be compared to that of rock star Freddy Mercury of Queen and their song, "Bohemian Rhapsody." Here we have Oscar Wilde, fun-loving, witty, cynical, decadent kind of guy, undone by his homosexual liaison with Lord Alfred Douglas, languishing in jail for sodomy. A few years previous to this sad turn of events, he writes The Picture of Dorian Gray--about a decadent, immoral murderer, who also has homosexual relations (with various young men who die, become drug addicts, commit suicide, etc.), and who dies a horrible and disfiguring death due to his evil ways. Now, we also have Freddy Mercury, who lived a flamboyant and decadent lifestyle as a sexually ambiguous rock star.
The PlayMakers Repertory Company’s rendering of Shakespeare’s play, directed by Jerry Ruiz, dismisses the gender binary that restricts individuals in society by showing that
When the Aesthete, Oscar Wilde, first showed up with his loving association with art it was seen by many as almost “unhealthy” and dangerous, “Wilde himself was accused of corrupting a young man (Lord Alfred Douglas), and his writings (including The Picture of Dorian Gray) were help up as evidence of his dangerous ideas” (Boilard). Some of his writings were frowned upon because they focused on subjects of sensual love, lust and cruelty. It was said that Wilde did not...
It is in these ways Wilde challenges Victorian earnestness.
The Impact of Gender on Shakespeare’s Othello. In the book “Gender Trouble” (1990), feminist theorist Judith Butler explains “gender is not only a social construct, but also a kind of performance such as a show we put on, a costume or disguise we wear” (Butler). In other words, gender is a performance, an act, and costumes, not the main aspect of essential identity. By understanding this theory of gender as an act, performance, we can see how gender has greatly impacted the outcome of the play in William Shakespeare’s Othello.
A critical analysis of Oscar Wildes only novel would yield that it is in fact a homosexual allegory of doomed, forbidden passion. The relationship between Lord Henry and Dorian, as well as Basil and Dorian is, clearly Homoerotic and must’ve shocked Victorian society.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) is a central figure in aesthetic writing. Wilde was a poet, fiction writer, essayist and editor. In the opening scenes of the movie Velvet Goldmine, Todd Haynes suggested that Wilde was one of the first pop idols. Oscar Wilde is often seen as a homosexual icon although as many men of his day he was also a husband and father. Wilde’s life ended at odds with Victorian morals that surrounded him. He died in exile.