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Redgrave and Berkoff re-enact Wilde trial

Louise Jury Arts Correspondent
Thursday 10 April 2003 00:00 BST
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The infamous courtroom battle that began the descent into ruin of Oscar Wilde was re-enacted last night by Corin Redgrave and Steven Berkoff after the discovery of the full transcript of the trial.

The actors, themselves frequently misunderstood figures, appeared in a one-off performance at the British Library as Wilde and his dogged questioner, Edward Carson QC, to read extracts from the trial.

The dramatisation marked the publication of the original 1895 transcript for the first time. It contains previously unseen details from the hearing in which Wilde unsuccessfully sued his male lover's father for libel after being accused of sodomy.

The existence of the transcript was unknown until two years ago when the owner, who has not been named, took it to the British Library while an exhibition of Wilde was being staged.

Wilde's grandson, Merlin Holland, has subsequently edited the papers for publication in Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess: the Real Trial of Oscar Wilde, which describes the events that took Wilde, a married man with two sons, from London's high society to Reading prison, convicted of gross indecency.

Mr Holland said: "There have been a number of so-called verbatim accounts published over the last 100 years, all of which have been heavily abbreviated and even bowdlerised. This new edition has been taken directly from the shorthand reports made in court at the time."

The trial was followed by Wilde's arrest and imprisonment. He was sentenced to two years' hard labour in May 1895.

The transcript can be seen at the library, where it will be on loan from Saturday to 1 June.

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