The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde

by Thomas Kilroy

A luminous drama about Wilde's wife's struggle for redemption. The play traces the hidden life of Constance Wilde. Her story explores the gender and sexuality of people who "belonged to the 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, set against the back-ground of one of the most notorious cases in British legal history, 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.

72 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1998