In 1895, in cell 3, on floor 3, in Reading Gaol, we find Prisoner C33.
Starved, thin and with his hair crudely hacked short, he is confined, alone, in this dark cell, denied water to wash himself with and allowed no access to a toilet.
Prisoner C33 is only ever referred to as Prisoner C33. His real name is Oscar Wilde (played by Toby Stephens: Lost in Space, Summer of Rockets, Jane Eyre), dramatist of genius, poet, wit, novelist, husband, father of two children, and until recently, the darling of London society. He has been imprisoned for the crime of having participated in a homosexual relationship. He is struggling to reconcile his identity as a creative genius with the trauma of his treatment as a despised criminal.
In despair, and fearing the onset of insanity, he fantasises being in conversation with his former self – his elegant, debonair, famous, popular, longhaired, flamboyant self, before this nightmare began. Their talk, Oscar with Oscar, is full of Wildean wit, mischievous humour, nostalgia, philosophical insight, and sardonic wisdom. But as he contemplates his fall from grace, he agonises over the loss of his wife and sons, and over the conflict between love and hate, aroused in him by the memory of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas.
We live now at a time of ‘cancel culture’. Prisoner C33 vividly reminds us that only a century ago, a great artist, a genius of the theatre was cancelled for being gay, in unutterably humiliating national condemnation.
DURATION
1 x one hour (1 x 68-minute version also available)
In 1895, in cell 3, on floor 3, in Reading Gaol, we find Prisoner C33.
Starved, thin and with his hair crudely hacked short, he is confined, alone, in this dark cell, denied water to wash himself with and allowed no access to a toilet.
Prisoner C33 is only ever referred to as Prisoner C33. His real name is Oscar Wilde (played by Toby Stephens: Lost in Space, Summer of Rockets, Jane Eyre), dramatist of genius, poet, wit, novelist, husband, father of two children, and until recently, the darling of London society. He has been imprisoned for the crime of having participated in a homosexual relationship. He is struggling to reconcile his identity as a creative genius with the trauma of his treatment as a despised criminal.
In despair, and fearing the onset of insanity, he fantasises being in conversation with his former self – his elegant, debonair, famous, popular, longhaired, flamboyant self, before this nightmare began. Their talk, Oscar with Oscar, is full of Wildean wit, mischievous humour, nostalgia, philosophical insight, and sardonic wisdom. But as he contemplates his fall from grace, he agonises over the loss of his wife and sons, and over the conflict between love and hate, aroused in him by the memory of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas.
We live now at a time of ‘cancel culture’. Prisoner C33 vividly reminds us that only a century ago, a great artist, a genius of the theatre was cancelled for being gay, in unutterably humiliating national condemnation.
DURATION
1 x one hour (1 x 68-minute version also available)
#OTD in 1897 – Oscar Wilde is released from prison and goes to live in France, where he writes his famous poem, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”.
#OTD in 1897 – Oscar Wilde is released from prison and goes to live in France, where he writes his famous poem, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile either in Bernevas-Le-Grand or in Dieppe, France, after his release from Reading Gaol. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading, after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years’ hard labour in prison. During his imprisonment, on Saturday 7 July 1896, a hanging took place. Charles Thomas Wooldridge…
