‘Tis a puzzlement, these plays of Oscar Wilde. They require audiences to pay careful attention as it is easy to get lost in the intricate and, sometimes, silly plots. Considering the advent of #metoo, I’m also wondering if Wilde’s plays of characters who withhold secrets and indiscretions still hold relevance for a twenty first century audience. I sat on the incompletion of this opening night review for a few days to ponder whether Stratford’s ‘comedy of manners’ production of An Ideal Husband was a wise choice for the 2018 slate.

Director Miles Potter and the company’s naturalistic approach and vision of this production is critical for a true appreciation of O’Neill’s 20th century American masterpiece tragedy. Kim Solga, professor of Theatre Studies at London, Ontario’s Western University, adds to this understanding of naturalism with the term geopathological drama (I never heard it before) in the Playbill analysis. Ms. Solga writes the Tyrone country cottage, itself, seems to be killing each member of the household slowly.

And right she is on this account.

Soulpepper bills La Bete as a ‘modern comedy of classical insanity’. What happens when two diametrically opposed approaches to drama clash with each other especially when one is preferred by a member of the royal French court?