If 2011 produces a bigger theatrical mystery than Constance I’ll be surprised. It’s billed as the world premiere of Oscar Wilde’s final play. But did he write even a word of it? At the risk of spoiling this puzzler, there’s no solution.
The facts are these. In 1894 Wilde sketched the idea for a play in which Mrs Daventry overhears her husband, a wealthy industrialist, paying a woman £200 in return, he hopes, for sex.
Wilde abandoned the idea to write his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest. By 1895 he was in jail. How much more he developed his unfinished play isn’t clear. But his notes passed from hand to hand until 1954, when they were dramatised, as Constance, by two Frenchmen.
Wilde’s son, Vyvyan Holland, confidently stated that “much of the dialogue has the authentic stamp of my father.” But on TV this year, Vyvyan’s son, Merlin, dismissed this as “complete tosh.” Intriguing, isn’t it?
Whoever wrote it, Act I, particularly the business of the attempted seduction, isn’t bad. The epigrams (“The stage is the refuge of those who are too beautiful or who think they are”) sound Wildean.
There’s the tantalising possibility that Wilde turned the arrogant Duchess into Lady Bracknell and the pious vicar into Canon Chasuble. It’s more possible that the industrialist Daventry is Wilde himself.
His wife was also named Constance. Did she overhear her husband seducing rent boys at their Chelsea home? Unfortunately Act II, which involves the vicar going berserk in Switzerland, and murder and mayhem all happening offstage, descends into melodrama.
The brave cast look as they don’t believe a word of it. If Wilde wrote this, he must have been on laudanum. This isn’t to say, however, that Constance isn’t enjoyable. On the contrary, it’s a real curio that should be seen now… because will it ever be seen again?
Rating: 3/5
King’s Head Theatre, 115 Upper Street, N1.
Runs until 22nd October
Box-office: 020 7478 0160 or www.kingsheadtheatre.com
