Oscar Wilde – Introduction to Neil Titley’s blogs and photos – and much more.
Oscar Wilde – by Jim Boylan
A warm welcome to all visitors to the website and I hope you enjoy the contents. Although there are many posts to come, over the weeks it has been continuously expanding.
The main project so far has been the weekly retrospective travel-blog entitled
This is the story of the perambulations of a one-man OSCAR WILDE show around the world over a 25 year period. The first post began on June 6th 2017 and the last post appeared on August 13, 2019.
The first reports came from 1993 Prague and have continued with Arabia, Hong Kong, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and India. The series ended with a lengthy account of Neil Titley’s perambulations around Ireland.
For anybody interested, be warned that you are in for the long haul – no fewer than 115 episodes in all. If you miss a post, don’t worry – it will remain online. The posts can be found in order of publishing in the right hand column of most pages. Otherwise just go to the top of this page and click on ‘Cider with Bosie’.
‘REVIEWS AND VENUES’
This page consists unsurprisingly of a collection of international review quotes and a list of the major previous show venues. It now includes various play bills and a collection of complete reviews.
‘TITLEY ON FILM’
This page highlights two U-Tube films of Neil Titley’s Wilde performance.
The first is of a costume rehearsal of the theatre show of ‘Work is the Curse of the Drinking Classes’ in 1984.
The second is called ‘Introducing Mr Wilde’ and contains the talk about Wilde including much of ‘Work is the Curse’. This was filmed in 2015 at a very distinctive show venue, namely the farmyard attached to a vineyard in rural Uruguay. It was a difficult place to play and the result mirrors this. It may be of some amusement however.
‘THE OSCAR WILDE WORLD OF GOSSIP’
This page is an introductory extract from Neil Titley’s book of the same name subtitled:
‘A Subversive Encyclopaedia of Victorian Anecdote’.
“The book is a hilarious collection of comic pen-portraits of Wilde’s 300 friends and enemies, linked by brief notes on his classic life story.They include an international cast of theatricals, revolutionaries, barristers, prostitutes, American frontiersmen, politicians, mystics, writers, soldiers, pornographers, diplomats, adventurers, and confidence tricksters.Simultaneously a ‘dip-in’ reference book and a continuous narrative, it is an exuberant compendium of malicious rumour, salacious detail, and backstabbing one-liners.It is also the funniest book ever written about the Age of Wilde.” (The book blurb – and reasonably honest as well.)
‘THE G.B. SHAW PAPERS’
A further major addition to the site concerns the life and work of Wilde’s great contemporary and countryman, George Bernard Shaw. It consists of a TV film of Neil Titley’s play ‘Shaw’s Corner’ (starring Dermot Walsh), together with both an extended and an abridged version of the script – plus three major essays covering Shaw’s views on his life, his economic theory, and his music criticism – plus a collection of GBS’s quotes. It is a treasure trove of Shavian material. It is NOW fully illustrated with photographs of Shaw’s Corner, Ayot St Lawrence village, and the Brocket Arms pub.
Future pages will contain other plays by Neil Titley – mainly monologues on Brendan Behan, Oliver St John Gogarty, Mrs Patrick Campbell, Dylan Thomas, Flann O’Brien, and the Comte de Gramont.
‘UNDER KEN WOOD’
Neil Titley’s affectionate and funny account of the life and death of a London pub – the Magdala Tavern. [First appeared on the website ‘Friends of the Magdala’.]
Thanks as ever to Jason Bevan for his expertise and patience in over-seeing this website.
‘INTRODUCING MR OSCAR WILDE’
Neil Titley has been involved for over 35 years in writing, acting, and directing solo shows, in particular his well-known performance as Oscar Wilde.
This show has been performed in hundreds of venues across the world, including the USA, India, Hong Kong, Uruguay, Zimbabwe, Bahrain, Ethiopia and most recently, in 2017, Canada.
He also published a book on Wilde called ‘The Oscar Wilde World of Gossip’, and his play on GB Shaw ‘Shaw’s Corner’ was televised in over 20 countries.
A version of his Wilde play, under franchise to the American actor Johnson Flucker, won the award as ‘Best Period Piece’ at the prestigious United Solo Theatre Festival in New York in 2015.
Although his own theatre show has now ended, Titley still performs a version of the script in a ‘Dramatized Reading’.
This consists of an introduction, the monologue itself, some comic descriptions of life on the theatrical road, and a ‘Question/Answer’ session. (It lasts very roughly for an hour.)
The talk can be given in virtually any performance space and needs no special production other than a lapel microphone (if necessary).
If you are interested, please contact through the channels below and we will be delighted to receive your communication and advise you on further details.
