‘Ideal Husband’ Speaks Tartly to Today

“We men and women are not made to accept sacrifices from each other. We are not worthy of them.” So Lord Goring observes coolly in “An Ideal Husband,” Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play about how a powerful politician and his high-minded wife learn that love has little to do with ideals. Wilde’s penultimate play strikes a clear-headed, pragmatic tone about love and integrity that, apparently, is speaking to the times in this election year.

The Peter Hall Company has a hit with the play on Broadway at the moment, L.A. Theatre Works and KCRW will record the play for radio broadcast in January, and now an enjoyable if wobbly production has just opened the season at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.

The terribly wry Goring is a stand-in for Wilde himself. An indolent, witty man, Goring has little purpose other than to deliver perfect epigrams and rescue his two friends, the esteemed Lord and Lady Chiltern, from disastrous scandal. Rescuing them gives his idle life a purpose and borrowed esteem, which unfortunately for him goes entirely unnoticed by his censorious father, Lord Caversham (the delightfully basset-faced Jack Sydow), who cannot speak to his son without expressing utter disappointment in him. “An Ideal Husband” is Wilde’s advertisement for himself, and for his wit’s usefulness to society, and for everything of value that grumps like Caversham refuse to acknowledge.

Life is polite perfection and banter in the cream-colored manse of Lord and Lady Chiltern. Enter Mrs. Cheveley, as embodied by Hope Alexander-Willis, a glamorous and anorexic Cruella De Vil, bejeweled and with raven hair. Says Goring of her: “She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman.” Alexander-Willis shows us only the pleasure this woman takes in herself, and she is a terrific, smiling villainess. She threatens to expose Chiltern’s dirty secret--that, as a young man, he sold state secrets to make his fortune. Now Lord Chiltern is a model of the upright and moral, but his career and marriage will be ruined if she makes good on her threat. Only Goring is there to make everyone see good sense.

Under the direction of Martin Benson, the accents aren’t consistent (and of course, they suffer from comparison to the British cast on stage in New York), but a larger authenticity is missing from this production as well. As Goring, Philip Anglim (Broadway’s original “Elephant Man”) offers a peculiar delivery, speaking in interminable languid cadences while looking around slowly as if underwater. He smiles serenely at his own witticisms and seems to say them to please only himself. This gives Goring an unfortunate aura of smugness.

For his part, Lord Chiltern (Mark Capri) does some chest-pounding rather than connect with true emotion during his most anguished speech, in which he denounces his wife’s suffocating devotion. But in less emotional circumstances, he is quite convincing. With his thin lips, square jaw and neat hair, Capri seems very British indeed, imprisoned in his rigid dignity, his manners and position, yet with intelligent eyes beaming out at the world from his still thrashing soul.

Debbie Grattan makes the rich Girl Scout that is Lady Chiltern remarkably sympathetic for such a horribly bossy and naive woman. But the actor who best gets at Wilde’s irrepressible humor is Susan Knight. Knight plays Miss Mabel Chiltern, Lord Chiltern’s unmarried sister, who has her cap set firmly for the bachelor Goring. She scrunches up her face as she readies another witty missile, sending it soaring through the air, usually to land square in the face of Lord Goring. He is no match for her relentless mirth, and indeed, he rolls over and gives in to her, a happy ending for the misanthrope.

Amid the very smart observations on politics and scruples, all of them tartly relevant just now, there is much said about love in this play, one of Wilde’s finest. Lady Chiltern puts her husband on a pedestal and only time and Lord Goring can teach her the importance of charity and forgiveness. As director, Benson works too hard to bring out the play’s heart, underlining passages he finds important by having the actors speak out with emphasis at those moments. Anglim and Capri are particularly guilty of this, having the most pithy observations.

One wishes for a more organic approach. This production feels either under-rehearsed or over-interpreted. If it is less than ideal, “An Ideal Husband” is still something to see, the perfect pre-election debate.

* “An Ideal Husband,” South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, Tuesday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2:30 p.m.; Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Ends Oct. 6. $18-$41. (714) 957-4033. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Debbie Grattan: Lady Chiltern

Mary Kay Wulf: Mrs. Marchmont

Maria Pavone: Countess of Basildon

Ron Boussom: Vicomte De Nanjac, Harold

Don Took: Mason

Hal Landon Jr.: Mr. Barford, Phipps

Pauline Tannous: Lady Jane Barford

Jack Sydow: Earl of Caversham

Susan Knight: Mabel Chiltern

Martha McFarland: Lady Markby

Hope Alexander-Willis: Mrs. Cheveley

Barbara Dee Smith: Duchess of Maryborough

Mark Capri: Sir Robert Chiltern

Philip Anglim: Viscount Goring

Ron Rapp: Mr. Montford, James

Michael Cox: Butler

A South Coast Repertory production. By Oscar Wilde. Directed by Martin Benson. Sets Tony Fanning. Costumes Walter Hicklin. Lights Anne Militello. Original music and sound Michael Roth. Hair and wigs Carol F. Doran. Production manager Michael Mora.