Lady Windermere's Fan

Synopsis

On the morning of his wife's twenty-first birthday, Lord Windermere gives her, as a token of his love, a beautiful present - a fan. However, she is to find out that her love is not as secure as she once believed. Who is the strange Mrs Erlynne and what is her husband's involvement with her? Within the structured confines of London 'society', Oscar Wilde creates a witty cartoon of morality and double standards. In twenty-four hours the happiness of Lard and Lady Windermere teeters on the precipice of scandal and disaster. Coloured with rakish young fops, innocent daughters, scheming mothers and bumbling gentlemen, lady Windermere's Fan is Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners, hidden identities and mistaken understandings.

Our Review:

22 February 2002

It's a family affair at the Haymarket. Following Peter Hall's revival of The Royal Family, starring Judi Dench and assorted stage aristocracy, comes the director's revival of this Oscar Wilde classic, boasting yet more familial connections.

In Lady Windermere's Fan, we get two celebrity pairings for the price of one. Real-life mother and daughter Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson play on-stage mother and daughter (though the latter remains, remarkably, unaware of the ties that bind) while real-life husband and wife Googie Withers and John McCallum play on-stage and fustified brother and sister.

In this Wildean comedy-drama-social satire, Richardson is the lady of the title, a Good Woman who misinterprets her husband's attentions and financial favours towards mysterious Bad Woman, Mrs Erlynne (Redgrave). By doing so, Lady W nearly repeats long-lost mum's big mistake of abandoning the marital home for a dashing lover and social ...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 5 June 2002:

Interesting direction, Richardson was a bit diffuse, Redgrave seemed like she was having a great time, Withers spoke much too hushed (I was sitting in the front row), but Davenport, Yelland and McCallum were all very good. Compelling score, nice set (enjoyed seeing what was going on behind the curtain)....

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