Ramin Gray To Return To the London Stage With Wilde's AN IDEAL HUSBAND at White Bear Theatre
The cast features Annie Tyson, Anastasia Velikorodnaya and more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 22, 2025
Oscar Wilde's wittiest and most politically charged play, An Ideal Husband, will receive a bold contemporary reimagining from acclaimed director Ramin Gray (RSC, Royal Court, Young Vic), former Artistic Director of Actor's Touring Company who staged 15 world premieres at The Royal Court Theatre. Performances will run at White Bear Theatre from January 5–11, 2026.
The cast features Annie Tyson (The Fourth Floor, Coronation Street, Damon and Debbie), Anastasia Velikorodnaya (Senior Acting Tutor at RADA), German Segal (Wolf Hall) and Michael Tcherepashenets (Secret Service), alongside Lizzie MacGregor, Cosima Aslangul and John Rice.
This production by the newly formed Broken Nose Theatre blends British and European theatrical traditions. Bringing together actors from leading Moscow theatres (Masterskaya Brusnikina, Moscow Art Theatre) and eminent British drama schools, this production explores the tension between power and authenticity, the perils of cancel culture, and the problem of sexism. Gray's direction goes to the very heart of Wilde's satire and finds issues that, in our MAGA reality, could not be more urgent.
London audiences were struck by the stripped back yet highly theatrical staging -more Jesse Armstrong than Victorian costume drama. The bold colours and heterogeneity of theatrical styles and accents intensified the experience of masks in a play written by a gay Irishman masquerading as a heterosexual Englishman. As one viewer said "it took the lid off the play for me!" Another said "I only ever want to see Wilde performed like this from now on!"
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