The Happy Prince

Synopsis

This passionate drama, written, directed by and starring Rupert Everett tells the story of the final years of writer Oscar Wilde’s life. Following imprisonment for “gross indecency” - a love affair with the beautiful but duplicitous Alfred Douglas - Wilde’s name was in disgrace and he traveled around Europe under a series of assumed names, his wealth diminished and his health rapidly deteriorating. However his genius and literary flair remained undiminished. Framed by Wilde’s own fable, ‘The Happy Prince’, recounted to his two young sons from his sickbed, this witty, campy and histrionic drama captures the writer’s character, wit, poetry and tragedy. It also movingly and angrily documents the shameful treatment of homosexuals that existed at the time.