In this stunning work of theater, Moises Kaufman turns the trials of Oscar Wilde into a riveting human and intellectual drama.
In April 1895 Oscar Wilde brought a libel suit against the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his youthful lover, who had publicly maligned him as a sodomite. In doing so, England's reigning man of letters set in motion a series of events that would culminate in his ruin and imprisonment. For within a year the bewildered Wilde himself was on trial for acts of "gross indecency" and, implicitly—for a vision of art that outraged Victorian propriety. Expertly interweaving courtroom testimony with excerpts from Wilde's writings and the words of his contemporaries, Gross Indecency unveils its subject in all his genius and human frailty, his age in all its complacency and repression. The result is a play that will be read and studied for decades to come.
WINNER
| 1997 Lambda Literary Award
"Absolutely gripping . . . scintillating . . . sharply intelligent, dramatically fresh . . . a Wildean triumph." --The New York Times
"Thrilling . . . unforgettable, maybe even life-changing. . . . [It has] the inevitability and much of the monumentality of a Greek tragedy." --USA Today
"A dazzling coup de theatre, at once compelling history and chilling human drama." --Time
In this stunning work of theater, Moises Kaufman turns the trials of Oscar Wilde into a riveting human and intellectual drama.
In April 1895 Oscar Wilde brought a libel suit against the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his youthful lover, who had publicly maligned him as a sodomite. In doing so, England's reigning man of letters set in motion a series of events that would culminate in his ruin and imprisonment. For within a year the bewildered Wilde himself was on trial for acts of "gross indecency" and, implicitly—for a vision of art that outraged Victorian propriety. Expertly interweaving courtroom testimony with excerpts from Wilde's writings and the words of his contemporaries, Gross Indecency unveils its subject in all his genius and human frailty, his age in all its complacency and repression. The result is a play that will be read and studied for decades to come.
Awards
WINNER
| 1997 Lambda Literary Award
Praise
"Absolutely gripping . . . scintillating . . . sharply intelligent, dramatically fresh . . . a Wildean triumph." --The New York Times
"Thrilling . . . unforgettable, maybe even life-changing. . . . [It has] the inevitability and much of the monumentality of a Greek tragedy." --USA Today
"A dazzling coup de theatre, at once compelling history and chilling human drama." --Time
