About the Play:

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde has become a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues.

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde is a full-length drama by Moisés Kaufman. A riveting, true account of the "Trial of the (19th) Century" – a critically acclaimed Off Broadway hit – that enacts Oscar Wilde's tragic downfall with tremendous feeling and startling theatricality.

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde is a courtroom drama that combines the fast-talking theatricality of modern prime-time legal dramas with engrossing dialogue in a reenactment of the trials endured by Irish author, poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, who was accused of sexual relations with men. In 1895, with The Importance Of Being Earnest still in the middle of its triumphant stage premiere, Oscar Wilde was convinced to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. Soon, however, the tables are turned, and Wilde finds himself arrested and on trial for "Gross Indecency." The play's rapid-fire dialogue is infused with electric exchanges that draw upon a mix of trial transcripts, letters, newspaper articles, Wilde's own writings, and the writings of his famous friends, as Moisés Kaufman weaves a harrowing tale of actual events as one of the world's most famous people finds his life, and art, put on public trial.

Gross Indecency premiered in 1997 at the non-profit Greenwich House Theatre, enjoyed a sold out and extended run, and transferred to the commercial Minetta Lane, where it won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Since then the play has been successfully staged at several professional theatres across the US. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional and college theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 4 male (doubling, flexible casting)

What people say:

"His style was his umbrella, his armor, his all-purpose defense system, and for many years it seemed to shelter Oscar Wilde most effectively. There came a moment, however, in 1895 when the playwright was betrayed by his own wit, after which he would never again be able to gain control of his life. In the absolutely gripping Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, written and directed with a scintillating style of its own by Moisés Kaufman, that moment is identified with such startling precision and clarity that it feels like the inexorable moment of reversal in a classic tragedy." — The New York Times

"A triumph … truth, purity, and simplicity suffuse [this] thoroughly engrossing new play…sweeps away cobwebs and distortions, allowing complex, credible human beings to emerge from history." — Washington Post

"A dazzling coup de theatre, at once compelling history and chilling human drama." — Time Magazine

"Stunning … taut, shattering, yet delightfully exuberant … altogether fascinating." — New York Newsday

"Thrilling ... unforgettable, maybe even life-changing ... deftly tells the story of the downfall of a great artist with the inevitability and much of the monumentality of a Greek tragedy." — USA Today

"Wonderfully Constructed! Both the true story and its multi-level telling are equally fascinating." — Portland Press Herald

About the Playwright:

Moisés Kaufman is a Tony and Emmy-nominated American director and award-winning playwright. Born to Jewish parents in Venezuela, he performed as an actor with the Thespis Theater Ensemble, one of the country's foremost experimental theatre companies. He moved to New York City to study theatre directing at New York University. He is also the co-founder and artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project, a theater company based in New York City. In 2016, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Both he and Tectonic Theater Project continue to be active in the New York City and global theatre scene to this day.