GERARD LOGAN in
WILDE WITHOUT THE BOY &
THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL

Two one act plays surrounding
the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde
performed by Olivier Nominated Gerard Logan

“Wilde Without the Boy”

A dramatisation of ‘De Profundis’ by Oscar Wilde
Directed and dramatised by Gareth Armstrong.
Performed by Gerard Logan (Olivier Nominee).
Music by Simon Slater, Lighting by Maximilian Spielbichler.

“Wilde Without the boy” is a dramatisation of “De Profundis”, the bitterly passionate letter Oscar Wilde wrote to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, from his cell in Reading gaol. Two years previously, Wilde had been imprisoned for gross indecency. Brilliant, loving, witty and passionate, “Wilde Without the Boy” is a glimpse into the humbled, bruised, loving soul of one of the greatest geniuses ever to have lived.

“The Ballad of Reading Gaol”
by Oscar Wilde

Directed and dramatised by Gareth Armstrong.
Performed by Gerard Logan
(Olivier Nominee & The Stage’s “Best Solo Performer” at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival).

Written by Oscar Wilde after his release from Reading Gaol (Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading having been convicted of homosexual offences in 1895, and sentenced to two years' hard labour), The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem which narrates the execution of Charles Thomas Wooldridge, who was convicted of murdering his wife.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol moves from an objective story-telling to Wilde’s juxtaposition of the executed man with himself, with the line "Yet each man kills the thing he loves". Wilde too was separated from his wife and sons.
Wilde suggested it be published in Reynold's Magazine, "because it circulates widely among the criminal classes – to which I now belong – for once I will be read by my peers – a new experience for me".