Gross Indecency: The Three Trails of Oscar Wilde — presented by Harrisburg’s Open Stage — accomplishes theater’s simple goal of allowing art to reflect life. The play runs until May 21 (232-6736) at the theater in the street level of the Walnut Street Garage.

Written by Moises Kaufman, the all-male cast portrays characters drawn from Wilde’s actual trial transcripts when he sued the Marquess of Queensbury for libel. The Marquess of Queensbury had publicly accused Wilde of engaging in homosexual activities with his 20-year-old son, Lord Alfred Douglas. Bill Eissler masterfully leads the cast as Wilde, not an easy task since eventually all stage action and dialogue is directed back to him. Theater veteran David Olmstead brings to life Lord Alfred Douglas in a portrayal of that character that was even keel against a barrage of criticism from all but his confidant, Wilde.

Clair Myers effectively plays the bitter Marquess of Queensbury who threatened to kill Wilde for his actions. He reminds one of today’s Rev. Fred Phelps who showed up at Mathew Sheppard’s funeral to tell his parents their son "got what he deserved." Nicholas Hughes is prosecutor Lord Edward Carson. Had his portrayal of this historically predatory character been more vituperative than restrained, the central conflict might have aroused more ire in the audience. Mike Knarr plays Wilde’s defense attorney Sir Edward Clarke, who also would have done better to show a bit more disdain for his opponents.

Long, boisterous applause for Larry Dague, R. Aaron Thompson, Erik Hein, and Ben Lawrence who play four narrators juggling multiple roles. They really had to pay attention since each of the other characters constantly cued them to hold up and explain published accounts of the proceedings as a novel way to punctuate the play.

The play is set against real life events in which Wilde sees his theatrical star rise and fall in record time. By the time Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest: a trivial comedy for serious people premiered in London on Valentine’s Day in 1895, he was widely acknowledged to have decisively conquered the theater world. Even The New York Times noted, "Wilde may be said to have at last, and by a single stroke, put his enemies under his feet." But about 100 days later, Earnest had closed. He had been publicly humiliated beyond all imagining, and he was facing a two-year prison term — all for being homosexual.

In a disturbing parallel drawn from Wilde’s dilemma, three weeks ago James Dale, of New Jersey, heard his appeal before the US Supreme Court asking that the Boy Scouts of America to reinstate him as a Scout leader. Eight years ago, the Boy Scouts unceremoniously bounced him after reading in a newspaper interview that he was head of a gay student organization at the time. A Scout all his life, who had earned the rank of Eagle, Dale never advocated homosexuality or any form of sexuality in his scouting experiences. Yet, the Scouts dismissed him under their "morally straight" clause. "I love Scouting and hope to return. It made me who I am today," Dale told MODE.

Also, like the Marquess of Queensbury, Mathew Sheppard’s killers relied on the "homosexual panic" defense during their trial as defense for killing him. Moises Kaufman, after scripting out the Wilde saga, spent a year in Laramie, Wyoming with 10 actors interviewing 200 people around the Matthew Shepard murder. Called The Laramie Project, the show is set to open soon in New York.

The Wilde play takes place while Wilde’s primary love-interest had been the Marquess’ son, Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas. The Marquess, like Dr. Laura or Gary Bauer, was generally regarded as a severely repressed and repressive individual. Annoyed at Queensbury, Wilde, at Bosie’s urging, swore out a warrant for Queensbury’s arrest on the charge of libel. Thus the celebrated trial was set into motion. Even without Alan Dershowitz or Ted Koppel’s Nightline, the public interest was aroused. No holds were barred. Wilde was appalled to learn that the defense had come up with ten names of boys he had (supposedly) solicited, along with some letters he’d written Bosie.

By trial’s end, Queensbury was not simply exonerated. In fact, the judge instructed the jury to find him justified in calling Wilde a sodomite in public and ended the saga by sentencing Wilde to "hard labour for two years." In Pentonville Prison he was required to walk a treadmill for six hours every day, and to sleep on a bare board; he lost 20 pounds in the first month. He was allowed no communication with the outside world for the first three months. Released finally on May 18, 1897, Wilde settled in France, where he died on November 30, 1900, at the age of 46. During his final fever, he still retained his wit: "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go …"