Latest cast interview: Lady Chiltern

See latest dress rehearsal back stage and on-stage pictures

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The first rehearsal of the first Act. More photos on our Facebook page.

The Play:
Oscar Wilde’s play is as topical today as it was when it opened in London’s West End in 1895.
Described in the original programme as “A New and Original Play of Modern Life”, the play examines issues of public and private morality, honour, loyalty and forgiveness in an age with many parallels to the present day.
Roaringly funny and as witty as ever, this modern classic promises to deliver to the contemporary audience of the 21st century.

Performance dates:
May 2012: Wed 2, Thu 3, Fri 4, Tue 8, Wed 9, Thu 10, Fri 11 at 19.30
and Saturdays May 5 & May 12 at 17.00 (new 2nd Saturday). Evening performances end at approx. 22.20, Saturdays at approx. 19.50.
Tickets:
from Ticketcorner.ch and affiliates: throughout Switzerland at post offices & rail stations,in Zurich at Jelmoli, Migros City, Manor. Tickets at CHF28 & CHF38 (All Ticketcorner sales incur additional fees)
Venue:
Theater im Seefeld, Seefeldstr 91, 8008 Zurich. (See map) Trams 2 & 4 to Feldegg. Ample underground parking.
Scripts are available for CHF11.90 from Orell Füssli, Bahnhofstr 70 (ISBN 978-1-85459-460-0).

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Wild about Lady Chiltern

Q: Ariane when and why did you join the Zurich Comedy Club?
A: I officially joined in 2007 just before opening night of Whose Life is it Anyway?, a great play by Brian Clark, where I had the pleasure of playing the part of the nurse Kay Sadler. An amazing time with a great cast and a brilliant director. The latter was David Roscoe, the only person at the University of Zurich to have taught me a lot about both English grammar and the subtleties of acting. But for him, as a native Swiss-German speaker, I would not have had the courage to join the Club and audition for a play in English in the first place. He also helped me prepare my monologue audition piece for the Royal Academy of Music in London, where I trained to be a musical theatre performer in 2009/10.

Q: Why would a Swiss person with your experience in the acting and music world join an English amateur theatre group in Zurich?
A: I wouldn’t call myself very experienced yet, certainly not when it comes to straight acting. I’ve only been a professional performing artist for a bit more than a year now, so I don’t really consider myself as being much different from the others. And the English language will always be something of a challenge to me however proficient I may be in it. What’s funny is that I sometimes really want to break into song or some tap dance routine and can only just stop myself by the skin of my teeth from ruining the Oscar Wilde atmosphere. I also have great admiration for my fellow cast members and their skills and enjoy working with a professional director.

Q: The Club’s next production is An Ideal Husband, where you play Lady Gertrude Chiltern. She comes across as a very naïve woman, too trusting, perhaps even a bit of a puritan! But how do you see your character?
A: Lady Chiltern is the play’s upright and earnest heroine, embodying the ideal of Victorian new womanhood – a very virtuous woman indeed. She may be considered naïve and too trusting. However, I admire her clarity of mind, her need to live a purposeful life, her serenity, her genuine feelings and her discipline. She would never eat a chocolate Easter bunny just before dinner.

Q: Lady Chiltern believes strongly that people do not change, but in fact she is the character that changes the most in the play. Would you say her metamorphosis comes out of love for her husband or the prospect of losing her position in society?
A: I believe Lady Chiltern really loves her husband. Nevertheless, she tries to convince herself and other characters that she fell in love with him because she saw in him the ‘power to do good’ and she believes in his ‘honesty’ and ‘purity’. At the end of the last act she tells her husband what he needs to hear, although she doesn’t really believe it when she’s parroting Lord Goring. She may seem very naïve at the beginning, but as the play progresses she reveals herself as the truly clever one and in some ways an avant-garde woman. She also displays a sense of humour once she’s playing the game Goring helps her to play in order to fight for her love.

Q: What do you enjoy most about playing a part written in 1895?
A: As a girl I would have to say the fantastic clothes, the hairdos, the accessories!
As an actress the challenge of playing a woman from a completely different time.
As an English major it would definitely have to be the beautiful language, the melody of a typically upper-class English accent from 19th century London, something I’m still struggling with.

Q: Has the story of An Ideal Husband impacted you personally in any way?
A: I’m definitely grateful that gender roles have changed a bit since that time. That one can support oneself by having a job without depending on rich family relations and as a woman that one doesn’t necessarily have to depend upon a man’s money. I’m happy that public opinion no longer has as much impact on the life of an individual as back in those days… and yet, I do ask myself how much people have really changed. Have we really learned from the mistakes of our predecessors?

Q: Why do you think people should come to see this period drama?
A: Because of all the eye-candy and ear-candy you’ll get. We will look and sound pretty 19th century, I hope. And the story the play tells will feel more familiar to the audience than one might think.