Thomas Kilroy - THE SECRET FALL OF CONSTANCE WILDE THE GALLERY PRESS
HOME CONTACT US
SEARCH
THE SECRET FALL OF CONSTANCE WILDE


'What I really want now is . . . to face my own role in this sorry — spectacle.'

Thomas Kilroy's luminous new play traces the hidden life of Constance Lloyd, wife of Oscar Wilde and mother of their children. Her story explores the gender and sexuality of people who 'belonged to a future' and untangles the shifting lines in the complex relationship between her, her husband, and his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas.

Through a drama of magical transformations and mysterious, masked figures, against the background of one of the most notorious cases in British legal history, Thomas Kilroy divines the cost of the characters' conduct, Oscar's plea for salvation in Constance's eyes, and her heroic exertion to reclaim a state of grace.

THOMAS KILROY - photograph taken by Joe O'Shaughnessy
Click on author's photo for biography

'Kilroy's text is not only an impressive reconstruction of Constance's life and relationship with her husband and his lover — at once factual and fictional — but also an equally fascinating exploration of gender roles, sexual identity, familial relationships, aesthetics and morality, theatre and literature, Christian and historical iconography . . . 'The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde' is one of those rare things, a courageous and ambitious piece of theatre which delivers far more than it promises.'     — The Sunday Tribune


Click on book for information
THE SHAPE OF METAL- cover - drawing by Brian Bourke  DOUBLE CROSS  THE O'NEILL  TALBOT'S BOX  TEA AND SEX AND SHAKESPEARE
GHOSTS  THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF MR ROCHE  THE SEAGULL  MY SCANDALOUS LIFE  PIRANDELLOS