Imprisoned in 1895, Oscar Wilde unwittingly became the world’s most visible example of the homosexual man. In his writings and other public utterances, Wilde had spoken out for Love, and for the risks worth taking on its behalf. In doing so, he inspired many other writers and artists, in Britain and abroad, to take up the same cause.
Gregory Woods, author of Homintern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World, in conversation with Russell Jackson: Wilde’s place in the international cultural movement that developed out of the late-Nineteenth Century’s new definitions of sexual identity.
To illustrate the radicalism of this movement and the changes it sought in both the arts and society, well known actor Tim Watson reads from Wilde and others.
Gregory Woods, Emeritus professor of Gay and Lesbian Studies at Nottingham Trent University, is the author of five poetry collections with Carcanet Press. His other major volumes of gay cultural history are Articulate Flesh and A History of Gay Literature.
Russell Jackson, Emeritus Professor of Drama at the University of Birmingham, has edited An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, and contributed to essay collections and journals including The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. His most recent publications include Theatres on Film: how the Cinema Imagines the Stage (2013) and Shakespeare and the English-speaking Cinema (2014), and among his current projects is a study of the plays of Noel Coward.
Timothy Watson trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama. He has worked extensively in Theatre, TV, Film, Radio and as a Voice-Over artist. Recent work includes Mr Selfridge, Arthur and George and Midsomer Murders for television and The Beaux’ Stratagem at The National Theatre.
He’s been gathering particular attention as the voice of the notorious Rob Titchener in The Archers.
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This evening’s events are sponsored by www.bespokehotels.com/noelarmshotel