Orange County Register, Thursday, March 2, 2006
Theater: It's true to Wilde's ideal

Review:  A Costa Mesa staging of 'An Ideal Husband' upholds the playwright's balance of
wit and wisdom.

By ERIC MARCHESE
Special to the Register

Oscar Wilde's lasting claim to fame may well be his 1895 masterpiece, the comedy of manners "The Importance of Being Earnest," but the Irish-born playwright's "An Ideal Husband" from the same year is praiseworthy in several respects, not the least being its examination of how, and whether, people idealize their married partners.

Wilde's focus is one couple in particular: Sir Robert Chiltern and his wife, Lady Gertrude. Early in his career, before his marriage, Robert exploited a government secret for financial gain. Now that indiscretion has come back to bite him, and though he fears political scandal, his bigger fear is that his wife, who idolizes him, will lose all respect and love for him.

The script is no less witty, humorous or entertaining than the more overt Wilde comedies, yet at its core, "Husband" uses issues like blackmail and political corruption to examine questions of honor and integrity. At Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, director Ryan Holihan and his fine cast remain true to that core, mining the laughs in appropriate places without abandoning elements of drama as relevant today as ever.

The opening scene, a party in the Chilterns' drawing room, more than sets the tone, with its elegant decor, light strains of classical music and members of polite society flitting about - elements upheld throughout the production via Holihan's attractive, ornate period costumes; Kathy Endicott and Steve Endicott's tasteful scenic design; Michael Edtinger's scenic painting; and Steve Endicott's lighting.

More crucially, the first scene establishes a light Wildean touch and the playwright's cynical view of British society's class system - a system abhorred by Lady Chiltern. And while class isn't the focus of "Husband," it's a linchpin for our understanding of Lady Chiltern's insistence that "circumstances should never alter principles."

John Sturgeon is a pleasingly mild and unassuming Sir Robert - never pompous, never laying on too thick the integrity and nobility for which the character is so lauded. He's credibly paired with Kay Richey, who as Lady Chiltern seems perfectly at home inside the skin of a privileged member of the late-Victorian upper class who firmly believes in noblesse oblige. Lady Chiltern's insight into Sir Robert's possibly dishonorable past is acute, and Richey's reactions carry the right feel, never more so than her devastation over learning the truth.

The blackmailing Mrs. Cheveley is a formidable, and truly hissable, foe, the dark side of Lady Chiltern's vision of the liberated woman. Like her castmates, though, Laura Lindahl keeps things real, her snooty accent an attempt by her character to mesh with high society. The play's true hero, and the mouthpiece for the script's most pithy witticisms, is the Chilterns' best friend, Lord Arthur Goring. In a thoroughly winning portrayal, Christopher Diehl combines the nonchalant, pampered air of the idle rich with a stubborn resolve to do the right thing.

As Sir Robert's unmarried younger sister Mabel, who's being courted by Lord Goring, Julie Usborn has little to do but beam or pout. Michael Dale Brown is forceful as Lord Caversham, Arthur's old-school, proper old dad. Barbara Duncan Brown cuts a comical Lady Bracknell-like figure as the garrulous, opinionated Lady Markby.

Goring and Mabel's tentative romance, and the presence of Caversham and Markby, give "Husband" a distinctly Wildean flavor that may cause some to expect a sappy, happy ending. Wilde is too good a playwright, though, to wind things up in that way. The various levels of intrigue, which include a diamond brooch and not one but two possibly incriminating letters, are woven into a plot whose real aim is to provide a character study of an old married couple in a time of crisis - and of the bachelor pal who proves far more substantial than he appears.

Freelance writer Eric Marchese has covered entertainment for the Register since 1984.

Orange County Register, Thursday, March 2, 2006