Wilde Thing

CONC ERT FOR T

WHOLE FAMI L

Moises Kaufrnan's play about the trials
of Oscar Wilde has garnered rave reviews.

DEBBIE
FRIED

LESLEY PEARL

Special to The Jewish News

rowing up Jewish in Cara-
cas, Venezuela, Moises Kauf-
man always felt a bit like an
outsider. Within the tightly
knit Orthodox community, the homo-
sexual man felt equally estranged by his
orientation. Now living in New York
City, the gay, Jewish playwright, direc-
tor and producer feels the otherness of
being Latin in an American country.
Kaufman believes it is this familiari-
ty with feeling "other"
that allowed him to suc-
cessfully delve into the
life and trials of Oscar
Wilde in his critically
acclaimed production

unday, January 18 • 4:00 p.m\
\
Maple/Drake Building

CC Members: $5/person • (Maximum $25 per famIJy
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—

7

or chilen and adults alike, Debbie's music is living Judaikm.
e as their guide, a whole generation of Jews come to em8
in the messages of the Rabbis of Old.

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4ao
modest. Sipping tea and eating sushi
during a 4 p.m. rehearsal break in San
Francisco, where the play recently
opened a concurrent run, Kaufman
preferred playing Jewish geography,
talking about Wilde and discussing
"what it is that art does that nothing
else can do.
"The purpose of art is to touch the
most divine chord that makes music in
our soul. Art is this thing to better the
human condition," Kaufman said.
Kaufman admits that, by his defini-
tion, Wilde was a master artist. Howev-
er, he had no real
interest in the author
until four years ago
when he received the
gift of a small book
tided The Wit and

4•1

Wisdom of Oscar
Gross Indecency: The
Wilde.
Three Trials of Oscar
What started as a
Wilde.
casual
glance soon
"Wilde was an Irish-
became
an obsession
man living in England,
when
Kaufman
read
an artist in a Victorian
the
last
10
pages
of
society," and a gay man
the
book.
The
pages
living in a proper society,
contained the tran-
Kaufman said during a
scripts of the court
recent interview. "He
imo
trials of Wilde.
had vast experience in
Moises Kaufman: "The purpose
The trials began in
being an outsider."
of
art
is
to
touch
the
most
1895
when Wilde
The play, called
divine chord that makes music
filed
a
libel action
"absolutely gripping ... a
in our soul."
against
the Marquess
must-see of the season,"
of
Queensberry.
At a
the-
New
York
Times
by
soiree
hosted
at
Wilde's
club,
Queens-
ater critic Ben Brantley, continues its
berry had presented his card, along
run at the Minetta Lane Theatre in
with
a written accusation that Wilde
New York City.
was
a
Sodomite.
Kaufman — the son of a synagogue
4-4
Queensberry
admitted this was an
president, a yeshiva graduate and
act of legal provocation done to save
founder of the Tectonic Theater Project
his son — the 21-year-old Lord Alfred
— is both thrilled and surprised by the
Douglas, with whom Wilde, then 40,
Gross
Indecency.
response to
was having an affair.
The show opened in March, off-off
During the libel trial, Queensberry
Broadway, without a single review.
used
the truth as his defense. Wilde
Nonetheless, by the third week of its
withdrew
his charge, leaving him open
run, "we were sold out. We were turn-
to
the
crime
of "gross indecency."
ing people away," Kaufman said.
He was convicted, imprisoned and
fto
The accolades have been pouring in
disgraced at the height of his career.
ever since — from the Washington Post,
"He was the toast of the town,"
the New York Daily News, Time maga-
Kaufman
said. "Yet there was that
zine and USA Today, among others.
potent
war
of art and morality — and
However, Kaufman, 33, remains
he got caught in it. If he wouldn't have
gone to trial, he could have continued
Lesley Pearl is a San Francisco-based
to make society laugh at itself.
freelance writer.

