In Extremis

“How could someone so intelligent do something so stupid?” asks Guy Kean, a theatre producer who has been in the business since starring as a child actor in the film version of Oliver.

A week before taking the Marquess de Queensbury to court for libel, Wilde contacted royal palm reader Mrs Robinson, whose other clients included Winston Churchill (he wrote of visiting the celebrity psychic in his diaries).

Little is known about Mrs Robinson but she was famous in her day. She wrote a book about her life then suddenly vanished at the beginning of the 20th century. She is a mystery figure who was privy to the thoughts of a man in crisis.

“She is maybe the turning point in what we now view as the tragedy of Oscar Wilde,” believes Kean.

Wilde’s turn to the occult defied his friends and advisor’s wishes. They knew he would be defeated by the Marquess, who had lined up rent boys ready to testify against Wilde and sully his name. The nobleman detested the fact that Wilde’s lover was his son, Lord Alfred Douglas.

Wilde’s aides, many of whom had fled to France to avoid charges, knew he would be beaten and the authorities would have to bring charges of gross indecency against the Irish writer.

“It is the modern equivalent of Simon Cowell – someone successful who appears to know what they are doing – going to see a palm reader. Lots of people see it as a weakness that the powerful are consulting someone on the fringes of society for advice.”

In Extremis was penned by Brighton-based playwright Neil Bartlett to commemorate the centenary of Wilde’s death for a season at The National Theatre in 2000. A key line in the play asks, “Mr Wilde, why are you here?”

“Why would somebody at the top of his career go for a palm reading?” adds Kean.

“He went to see her one week before the trial. With hindsight, we know what happens so it seems stupid. But other people – Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling – believed in the occult.

“Do these people, whether a medium or a palm reader, see something we don’t? Or are they charlatans, picking up on what we want to hear?

“In that regard the debate has not changed. The question is, did she believe what she told him or make it up?”

The meeting took place in March, 1895, in Mrs Robinson’s London flat.

Bartlett wrote the play from diaries and letters, and imagines what Mrs Robinson might have said to Wilde.

“In the blurb for the production, he says he has made very little up. To be frank, there were only two people in the room. No one can know for certain what was said but we know how it ended up.”

Kean has chosen Brighton Fringe to close the first nationwide tour of In Extremis.

The two-person play has a rotating cast including two-time Argus Angel-winning actor Nigel Fairs, and Charlie Buckland (pictured) who recently appeared in This House at the National Theatre.

Opposite, as Mrs Robinson, is Hove’s Suzanne Procter, alternating with Kate Copeland, who has just finished touring with Bath Theatre Royal.

Kean says the story is as much about human nature as Oscar Wilde.

“If someone tells you what you want to hear, you grab it with both hands.

“So it is about all of us – because a decision may be right at the time and prove to be wrong, and the things we do that are wrong might also prove to be right.”