Rare Play About Oscar Wilde Will Return to NYC

The Ensemble Theatre Company of New York will make its debut with Diversions & Delights, Oscar nominee John Gay's solo play about Oscar Wilde and his arrest for "gross indecency."

The production, starring Craig Dudley as the legendary writer and wit, will run March 5-8 at Stage Left Studio.

This will mark the first professional New York staging of Diversions & Delights since Vincent Price performed it on Broadway in 1978. The play premiered a year earlier in San Francisco and subsequently toured more than 300 cities with Price over the next three years. The play has rarely been performed since.

The play, according to press notes, "follows an exiled Oscar Wilde after his imprisonment. In need of money and under the pseudonym 'Sebastian Melmouth,' Wilde appears at a small concert hall on the Rue de la Pepinier in Paris, France, on November 28, 1899. At the beginning, Wilde amuses the audience with his wit, but as the evening progresses, he reveals truths about his fame, wealth, family, and how he lost it all for 'the love that dare not speak its name.'"

"We are honored that the 90-year-old author has trusted the Ensemble Theatre Company of New York with his play," says executive director Kevin G. Shinnick.

For tickets and more information visit StageLeftStudio .net.