Oscar Wilde. BUNBURY
Events
Victorian age: everything in its proper place. A respectable man is a respectable man, a respectable woman is a respectable woman.
QUEEN Victoria is a weighty ruler, and the morality of her heavy petticoats creates a stuffy atmosphere that is almost suffocating.
And yet Oscar Wilde is the pampered darling of his time. KING Oscar, sovereign of sharp provocations against everything established, setting himself up as the ultimate measure at the very top of that establishment; married family man, artist of the refined salons, master of perfect form! But he is also the promiscuous gay man on greedy excursions through the world of male prostitution, the wanderer in shabby backstreets, returning home with stains on his velvet trousers.
DOUBLE LIVES CONTAIN EXPLOSIVE FORCE.
Write comedy, play comedy. Leave nothing to seriousness. Play the social clown who always invents the latest sensation—and everyone screams along.
With BUNBURY, Wilde pushed the precision of his wit to its peak. And he never concealed himself more revealingly than in this final play.
On February 14, 1895, it premiered. There was much laughter!
On May 25, he was convicted of homosexuality and sodomy. There was much laughter!! at his answers, which he delivered in court like one of his stage characters.
The verdict: two years of hard labor in prison. Forbidden to speak publicly. All writings banned. All plays withdrawn.
The records of the trial are interwoven with Wilde’s BUNBURY. Brilliant surface and grotesque abyss intersect in a trivial tragedy for serious people.
THE DIGNITY OF MAN IS VIOLABLE.
We do not require proof of eligibility for reduced tickets. Please choose the price category that personally suits you.
On 28/29 May with touch tour and audio description
THEATRE REVIEW
Mon, 01.06.2026, 7:30 pm
At Haus am Dom
nomen est omen
BUNBURY: Life is Earnest
Oscar Wilde
Theatre review of the production at Theater Willy Praml
Admission free
If your name is Ernest, you must also be earnest. If you are serious, you are earnest—sincere. Where Bunbury is buried can only be discovered by looking behind the scenes. On stage, the seriousness of life prevails; behind the curtain, one gives in to what truly drives one. The difficulty for the one who plays on both sides: the worlds must remain strictly separated. When the curtain that divides them falls, everyone drops their trousers. The audience laughs only as long as they are allowed to remain spectators and are not placed on Wilde’s stage themselves—where one can end up quite naked.
- Ensemble of Theater Willy Praml
- Michael Weber, director
- Dr. Lisa Strassberger, literary scholar
- Dr. Stefan Scholz, theologian