Though its three-hour running time may not be a contemporary theatergoer’s ideal, Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband served with a London High Tea Dinner at Pasadena’s picturesque Madeline Gardens Bistro makes 413 Repertory Theater’s latest a mouth-wateringly out-of-the-ordinary evening of stage and cuisine.

The husband in question is Sir Robert Chiltern (Aaron Stevenson), whose moral rectitude has not only inspired the play’s title, it has won him the heart and hand of the lovely Gertrude (Erin Manker), now Lady Chiltern, whose unquestioning faith in her exemplary mate finds itself sorely tested when a certain Mrs. Laura Cheveley (Melissa Harkness) shows up at a dinner party being held in Sir Robert’s fashionable Grosvenor Square home circa 1895 with blackmail on her mind.

Laura, it seems, has gotten herself involved in a crooked scheme to build a canal down Argentine way, and she desperately needs House Of Commons member Robert to come out publicly in support of the canal, a project which he virulently opposes.

As befits any blackmailer worth her salt, Mrs. Cheveley has arrived well armed, in this case with a letter proving that Sir Robert began his rise to fame and fortune with his own bit of chicanery. (While still a young man, the future lord acted on secret information passed to him by Mrs. Cheveley’s then lover and bought stock in the Suez Canal just three days before the British government announced its purchase of said canal.)

Heaven only knows what course Sir Robert might take were he not married to Lady Gertrude, whose absolute confidence in her husband’s moral rectitude places Robert smack-dab between a rock and a hard place.

Should he refuse to publicly support the Argentinean canal, Mrs. Cheveley will destroy his career and quite possibly send him to jail. If he comes out in favor of it in front of the House Of Commons, his marriage will be toast.

 Also figuring in Wilde’s dramedy are the Chilterns’ Wilde-quipping friend Lord Arthur Goring (Colin A. Borden), Robert’s flighty younger sister Mabel (Jordann Zbylski), Arthur’s domineering father Lord Caversham (Robert Leh), and dowager family friend Lady Markby (Tamarah Ashton), with French Embassy attaché Vicomte De Nanjac and Goring butler Phipps (both played by KyleDeCamp) completing the dramatis personae.

Anyone who knows Oscar Wilde only from The Importance Of Being Earnest will likely be surprised by just how dramatic a turn his second-most-popular (and still astonishingly relevant) play takes while still serving up plenty of classic Wildean bons mots. (“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” “If we men married the women we deserved… we should have a very bad time of it.”)

Though I can’t help wishing director Harkness had made some judicious cuts in what is a very long play, she keeps the pace lively throughout while making shrewd use of Madeline Gardens’ elegant living-room setting, and her devious, redheaded Mrs. Cheveley could give any soap opera villainess a run for her money.

Stevenson does particularly strong work as the painfully conflicted Sir Robert, Borden makes for a witty and charming if overly slapstick-prone Lord Goring, Zbylski’s Mabel is as spicy as a prim-and-proper Victorian virgin can get, and Ashton, DeCamp, and Leh all provide able support.

Best of all is USC School of Dramatic Arts grad Manker, who invests Lady Chiltern with equal parts loveliness, heart, depth, and a certain je ne sais quoi that makes her one to watch.

Design elements, all of them uncredited, are topped by some sumptuous Victorian-era gowns, lighting (mostly just on and off) fills the bill, and there’s subtle musical underscoring throughout.

Still, audiences may be surprised to learn that 1895 London newspapers look just like today’s dailies with their full-color photographs and ads, and the cast’s posh London accents could have benefited from a dialect coach’s correction of occasionally mispronounced words, among them “can’t,” “last,” “stand,” “conservatory,” and “brooch.”

Julie Burlington is producer. Danielle Arellano is stage manager. Kate Burlington is company manager.

Oscar Wilde at his wittiest accompanied by scrumptious tomato bisque, assorted tea sandwiches and savories, dessert morcels, and a potful of English tea make 413 Repertory Theater’s An Ideal Husband unlike any other evening of classical theater in town. It’s certainly the tastiest.

The 413 Project Theater at The Madeline Gardens, 1030 E Green St, Pasadena.
www.the413project.org

–Steven Stanley
February 13, 2020

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Oscar Wilde, The 413 Project Theater, The Madeline Gardens