He was the man Oscar Wilde went to prison for: his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, the handsome, overprivileged son of the Marquess of Queensbury whom Wilde and others affectionately called Bosie.
And while many plays and films have dealt with their scandalous affair from Wilde’s perspective, Thomas Kilroy chooses another point of view — Bosie’s — for his “My Scandalous Life,” presented by the Irish Rep.
Unfortunately, that view is a pretty myopic one.
Set in 1944, the play presents the elderly, nattily dressed Douglas (Des Keogh) sitting in his well-appointed living room and reminiscing about the past, between noisy interruptions from his blustery Irish maid (Fiana Toibin).
Douglas mostly natters on about his less interesting, post-Wilde life, including his loveless marriage and his guilt over his son Raymond, confined to a mental asylum since childhood.
“Bloody awful business, marriage,” he gripes. “Especially sex. I’ve been chaste now for 30 years, and it’s done me a world of good.” He briefly refers to his father, the Marquess, who relentlessly persecuted Wilde, and mentions “De Profundis,” the infamous love letter Wilde wrote to him from prison. But anyone looking for deeper insight into the scandal will find little illumination here.
The fussy, mannered Keogh makes the 75-minute show feel endless. Even the conclusion, which aims to be shocking, falls flat. The unintended result is to make us wonder what Wilde saw in this self-absorbed twit.