'Wilde Without The Boy', at the Tabard Theatre

Olivier award nominee Gerard Logan performs two one-act plays

Two one-act plays surrounding the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde will be performed by Olivier-nominated Gerard Logan at the Tabard Theatre.

'Wilde Without the Boy' and 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' run from April 30 to May 2nd at the Tabard Theatre at 7.30 pm.

'Wilde Without The Boy' is a dramatisation of 'De Profundis', the bitterly passionate letter Oscar Wilde wrote to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, from his cell in Reading gaol. Two years previously, Wilde had been imprisoned for gross indecency. Brilliant, loving, witty and passionate, 'Wilde Without the Boy' is a glimpse into the humbled, bruised, loving soul of one of the greatest geniuses ever to have lived.

Gerard Logan speaks to The Chiswick Calendar about the play

Written by Oscar Wilde after his release from Reading Gaol (Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading having been convicted of homosexual offences in 1895, and sentenced to two years' hard labour), 'The Ballad of Reading Gao'l is a poem which narrates the execution of Charles Thomas Wooldridge, who was convicted of murdering his wife.

'The Ballad of Reading Gao'l moves from an objective story-telling to Wilde’s juxtaposition of the executed man with himself, with the line "Yet each man kills the thing he loves". At the time, Wilde was separated from his wife and sons.

Wilde suggested it be published in Reynold's Magazine, "because it circulates widely among the criminal classes – to which I now belong – for once I will be read by my peers – a new experience for me".

Book online at www.tabardtheatre.co.uk or 08448 472264

Tickets £14/£12

Tabard Theatre, 2 Bath Road, W4 1LW

May 7, 2015