Oscar Unwritten -Samuel Beckett Theatre – Review
by Frank L.

Oscar Unwritten – written by Tim Scott
Dates – 5th June to 26th July, 2026

Robbie Ross was a good friend to Wilde and, in the years following Wilde’s downfall, an outstanding one. This play takes the format of Ross recording his knowledge and memories of Wilde following his death. He is trying to answer, according to the brief programme note, the impossible question “should Oscar’s full story ever be told?”

The play begins with Wilde (Lorcan Strain) lying on a bier covered by a thin shroud at the back of the stage. Ross (Eoin Fullston) is at a desk composing his thoughts. The shroud is removed from the bier, and Wilde comes back to life. He engages Ross and almost ridicules him as he begins his story with Wilde’s birth in Dublin. But gradually Wilde’s commentary subsides as he himself becomes part of the action, participating in the events that proclaimed his genius and those that led to his destruction.

In telling Wilde’s story, Ross intertwines Wilde’s fiction (or what he might have called his art) with the dreariness of facts. So Salome (Lena Jorge) from the eponymous play appears as a temptress and Dorian Gray (Liam Bixby) as the symbol of eternal youth from the novel. Bixby subsequently plays the real-life and destructive figure of Bosie, whose love/hate relationship with Wilde was a major ingredient in his precipitous downfall. Also prominent is his stoical wife Constance (Fiona Lucia McGarry) and his bete noire Edward Carson (Fionnan Morley), who was a colleague in Trinity and his cross-examiner at the first of his trials.

With its elegant use of scrims and lighting projections, this well-performed play thrusts you into the tragedy of Oscar Wilde. Scott, in choosing Ross to tell the tale, selects a man who knew Wilde better than most but, despite the scandals, could see what a gargantuan artistic figure he was. Fullston plays his role well as Robbie, but as in actual life, Oscar is not to be surpassed, and Strain projects Wilde’s larger-than-life accomplishments and his weaknesses. He declares the genius of Wilde.

This play is a fitting insight into one of Trinity’s most famous alumni, but at the time of his death “infamous” would have been considered a more appropriate adjective. Robbie Ross, given his proximity to Wilde, is a wise choice to attempt to answer his question “should Oscar’s story ever be told?”. This 75-minute theatrical interlude does not tell the full story, but it sets out many of the intriguing enigmas that continue to surround Oscar Wilde to this day.

Oscar Unwritten – Cast and Crew:
Lórcan Strain as Oscar Wilde
Eoin Fullston as Robbie Ross
Fiona Lucia McGarry as Constance Wilde
Liam Bixby as Bosie / Dorian
Fionnán Morley as Carson / Percy Douglas / Arthur Conan Doyle
Lena Jorge as Salomé
Written by Tim Scott, Director of The Samuel Beckett Theatre
Directed by Sarah Jane Scaiffe @sarahjanescaife