Two Wilde Foxes take to the stage
For the theatrical wing of the Fox family, it’s an ideal partnership. Edward Fox and his son Freddie are to star in one of oscar Wilde’s most famous comedies — as father and son.
Freddie is confirmed to play the hedonistic Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband, running at the Vaudeville Theatre (as part of its oscar Wilde season) from April 20.
Producers from the Classic Spring Theatre Company are ‘rumoured’ to be negotiating for Edward Fox to appear as the Earl of Caversham: Arthur Goring’s dad.
If the deal can be done, it will mark the first time the two actors have appeared in the same production. Jonathan Church, the play’s director, and Dominic Dromgoole, who runs Classic Spring with theatre owner Nica Burns, have also cast Frances Barber to play the blackmailing Mrs Cheveley.
Done well, it’s an utterly delightful play, packed with great lines such as the oftquoted: ‘Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people we personally dislike.’
The play explores Mrs Cheveley’s behaviour towards a married couple, the Chilterns; and matters concerning private political papers and the possibility of public ridicule.
Edward Fox, 80, was last on stage as John Betjeman in Sand In The Sandwiches (which Mr Church co- produced), and Freddie is rarely off it.
He was on sparkling form in the Menier Chocolate Factory’s critically acclaimed revival of Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, which transferred to the West End last year.
This is not the first Fox family father-and-son pairing on stage. Three years ago Edward’s brother, James, appeared in a touring version of Dear Lupin with son Jack.