Stage: Gross Indecency

Toronto Star

August 6, 1998

GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE Moises Kaufman’s intellectually absorbing but emotionally distant documentary drama revolves around the relationship between art and morality. It focuses on the years 1894-95, when Wilde, a celebrated figure in Victorian society, stood trial for his sexual relations with young men.
 
What emerges is a thorough portrait of Wilde’s ideas and the historical moment in which they were expressed.
 
Paul Miller, in the title role, doesn’t play Wilde, so much as he represents him. Gross Indecency entails a thorough airing of important ideas, but whether it has the heart to make them stick is a trickier question.