THEATER REVIEW |

Taproot Theatre's mounting of "An Ideal Husband" captures the crisp wit and shrewd insights of Oscar Wilde, the playwright-racounteur you'd most want to be seated near at an 1890s London dinner party.

With stylish verve, and a sublime comic turn by Aaron Lamb as a contrarian slacker with reserves of sensitivity, Karen Lund's staging unpacks a scintillating farce about men and women, marriage and politics, blackmail and ethics.

In hindsight, given Wilde's biography, one can also see in this diverting comedy of manners about a trusting wife who places her politician husband on a lofty pedestal a self-rationale — and a plea for tolerance.

When "An Ideal Husband" opened in 1895, Wilde was the literary toast of London, with an elegant, admired wife, Constance, and two young sons. But when his homosexuality was publicly exposed, he too would be knocked off a pedestal — with a crashing blow, and the loss of his family, status and freedom.

No such bleak shadows hover over the Taproot rendering — which takes the play at face value, and focuses on its intrinsic charms.

Like Wilde, the character Sir Robert Chiltern (Ryan Childers) holds a dark secret. A shady woman, Mrs. Cheveley (a perfectly worldly-wicked Nikki Visel), turns up at a soiree at his home, threatening to expose it. If he doesn't meet her demands, Chiltern may lose his rising political career, and the love of his wife (the poised Candace Vance) — who has long idealized him as a paragon of incorruptible moral purity.

Enlisting the help of his droll, idle pal Lord Goring (Lamb), Chiltern goes to great lengths to avoid exposure and scandal.

The to-and-fro of the 11-member cast gets a bit frenetic on Taproot's compact stage, but Lund's airing sports such amenities as exquisite period gowns designed by Nanette Acosta, smart comic pacing, and well-spoken actors who deliver Wilde's plot kinks and bons mot with aplomb.

Lamb tosses off the lion's share of Wildean quips with dash. (i.e., "Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.") And he helps us buy Goring's very quick transformation from flippant loafer to loyal mediator and solid husband material (for Anne Kennedy Brady's twinkly Mabel Chiltern).

Goring is Wilde's obvious surrogate. But Chiltern, in the end, voices the writer's sincere plea that "All lives, save loveless lives, true Love should pardon."

Wilde received no such pardon. Months after the debut of "An Ideal Husband" (and his masterpiece, "The Importance of Being Earnest"), Wilde was embroiled in a trial that led to his imprisonment on sodomy charges. His dazzling career ended — but his farsighted plays live on, and thrive.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com