Yet again, this minuscule gem of a theatre has produced, in little space and by slender means, a brilliantly conceived and mounted show. Moises Kaufman's excellently crafted documentary drama--drawn from a surprising variety of memoirs, journalism, and official records--is gloriously served by Rosina Reynolds' meticulous and dynamic direction. Incidents and characters are presented with such complete attention to their emotional weight and truth and are rendered with so vivacious an energy that even the play's numerous vocal citations of sources (Kaufman credits every quotation) fairly trip along in the headlong flow offering no impediment to pace.
Capturing the "trial of the century" media hoopla of the proceedings, David Weiner's clever scenic design--done with draperies and fripperies--more suggests a Victorian music hall, with footlights and boxes, than the Old Bailey courtrooms in which the action mainly occurs. And Reynolds' knees-up direction imparts the same paradoxically entertaining panache to this tragic history of Oscar Wilde's juridical ruination. Wilde himself, glitteringly impersonated by Farhang Pernoon, appropriately takes centerstage as if he were a headlining variety act, punctuating each of his witty witness box comebacks with toothy takes at the imagined onlookers. But it is the terrible inappropriateness of such blithe behavior--such Til Eulenspiegel prankishness--before the grim power of bar and bench that gives the show its gathering sense of doom. And Karl Backus, unostentatiously effective as Edward Carson, Queensberry's barrister in the first trial, perfectly underscores this by the simple trick of merely conducting his examination of Wilde with all the understated seriousness of a complete legal professional.
Excepting Pernoon's Wilde and Angelo D'Agostino-Wilimek's sleek and spleeny portrayal of Lord Alfred Douglas, the other seven actors play multiple roles, with some notable performances by John Martin, earnest and honorable as Wilde's attorney, Sir Edward Clarke; by Douglas L. Ireland as the barking mad Marquis of Queensberry; by Devlin Dolan as Frank Harris and as the male prostitute Charles Parker, as well as equally fine work in an abundance of other parts by Vincent Smetana, Wes Culwell, and Robert Borzych. This superbly integrated cast makes a marvelous visual impression, well dressed in the elegant and emblematic costumes including period smallclothes, designed by Liam M. O'Brien, and under the changing moods of Jennifer Setlow's lighting design.