Les Clack proves in his monodrama, More Lives than One: Oscar Wilde and the Black Douglas, that Wilde indeed lived a number of lives. In flashback from an account of references to his clash with his lover Bosey’s father and the trial that followed, Clack goes back to Wilde as always a topic of conversation, no matter where: even at Oxford. In London, of course. On a tour of America. Back in England--where, for the most part, Clack chronicles Wilde’s life. Clack shows Oscar did appreciate women. Lily Langtree “broke his heart,” but he married Constance, and they had two boys. Then pederasty “began to get the better of him.” What shocked public and church pastors was “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and its hero would mark his life evermore. Bosey became Dorian. Then came the plays. A Woman of No Importance--the equivalent of a swagger. Clack gets into Wilde’s best-known play with a deservedly applauded sample scene from The Importance of Being Earnest. Clack finds personal significance to Wilde in Salome also. The clash with the Marquis of Queensbury, Bosey’s father, leads to a detailed section on the lawsuit, the trial, and the aftermath, including Wilde’s children being taken from him. Clack gives a poignant reading from “The Ballad of Redding Gaol.” His later life in “desperate straits” in France, including a futile attempt to contact Sarah Bernhardt, brings pathos to Clack’s performance. There’s a happy note at the end: Wilde’s religious conversion and some kindness by Bosey. It’s appropriate for a show with a powerful emotional arc.
