An Ideal Husband at White Bear Theatre

White Bear Theatre, January 5–11, 2026. Oscar Wilde’s wittiest and most politically charged play, An Ideal Husband, receives 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.

About The Show: Wilde's timeless comedy of power, corruption, and cancel culture speaks with particular urgency to our MAGA world. An ambitious British politician, Sir Robert Chiltern's smooth ascent to the top seems assured. Until Mrs Cheveley appears in London with damning proof of his dark secret.

The cast, part of the newly formed Broken Nose Theatre, brings together actors from leading Moscow theatres (Masterskaya Brusnikina, Moscow Art Theatre) and eminent British stages to create a powerful cross-cultural phenomenon. Featuring 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.

From the Director: What comes across strongly is the savagery of Wilde’s satire of the English and his powerfully coded plea for authenticity in sexual and gender relations. It feels effortlessly contemporary...If Wilde refuses to be a period piece it is only because, even if the world has changed radically for gay men since 1895, so many of the underlying social and political issues haven’t. One can take almost any line and find an analogue that sparks debate. A recurring theme during rehearsal has been the Epstein scandal, a story from the past that implicates powerful men in a compromising sexual vista of control and excess. It’s the plight of Sir Robert Chiltern and the play spins around this question. The idea of respectability in public life remains as powerful as ever, even if Trump has done everything to buckle and twist it.

During its November run, 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.

Full cast information:

• Laura Cheveley – Anastasia Velikorodnaya
• Robert Chiltern – German Segal
• Gertrude Chiltern – Lizzie MacGregor
• Mabel Chiltern – Cosima Aslangul
• Lord Goring – Michael Tcherepashenets
• Lord Caversham – John Rice
• Lady Markby – Annie Tyson