Stephen Fry: Oscar Wilde Made Me Feel Less Alone

Stephen Fry took to the stage at Cadogan Hall as part of the inaugural Chelsea Arts Festival this morning – in between rehearsals for The Importance of Being Earnest at the Noel Coward Theatre – to tell us why he’s so enamoured with Oscar Wilde.

In the first ever Blue Plaques Live event, hosted by Hannah MacInnes at Cadogan Hall, Sir Stephen Fry told us how his passion for Wilde, who lived at 34 Tite Street, Chelsea, was ignited as a child when he first saw a film version of The Importance of Being Earnest on his very shaky black and white television.

‘There was a moment where a young man said, “I hope I shall not offend you if I state quite frankly and openly that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection,”’ Fry told a hushed audience at Cadogan Hall, ‘and I’d never known people could speak like that…’

From then on, his passion was fuelled. He waited for the mobile library to arrive and gorged himself on all of Wilde’s plays, writings and books – but it was Earnest in particular that he came to call a ‘masterpiece’. ‘I learned it almost by heart: the speeches, the rhythm, the extraordinary bandwidth of it,’ he told the Chelsea Arts Festival audiences. ‘It’s the unity that makes it perfection: the perfect blend of plot, character, and language. The exquisite farce, the skipping cleverness of the lines – it all unites. That’s why it’s up there with The Great Gatsby or Shakespeare: a masterpiece where everything meets.’

Not only did Fry go on to play Wilde in the Brian Gilbert-directed film of the same name in 1997 (opposite Jude Law as Bosie), but he is currently swapping sexes to play Lady Bracknell 28 years later in the current production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Noel Coward Theatre, which is playing until January next year.

It was not just Wilde’s extraordinary words that inflamed Fry, but his shared story. As a gay man, Fry recognised that his life would be the same as Wilde’s: full of shame, blackmail, guilt but also validation. ‘Reading Wilde’s story made my heart sink,’ Fry said. ‘Yet it also vindicated and validated me. I shared his “nature”, as he called it, and that did me enormous good. I felt less alone. He  gave me a kind of education and an introduction to literature and art and culture that I would otherwise never have had.’

In addition to Stephen Fry’s reading of Oscar Wilde’s 34 Tite Street Blue Plaque, the stories of other famous Chelsea residents Bob Marley, George Eliot and Martha Gellhorn were brought to life through Story Stocks’ Blue Plaques Talk Back live session.

Which Other Famous Figures Lived In Chelsea?

George Eliot – 4 Cheyne Walk

Although Eliot lived for only a few weeks in Chelsea, her Blue Plaque is proudly displayed at 4 Cheyne Walk. She chose Chelsea, her biographer Kathyrn Hughes told the audience after a beautiful reading by Flora Montgomery, ‘because she could see the Thames, which she thought was picturesque, and beyond that she could see fields and it reminded her of home.’

In her day, Hughes continued, Eliot went on to become the most important woman in Britain despite not being born into a grand family. ‘She just educated herself. Just extraordinary.’

Bob Marley – 84 Oakley Street

Bob Marley, who came to Chelsea after the assassination attempt on his life in Jamaica in 1976, wrote some of his most famous songs – including Exodus, Jamming, Waiting in VAin, Three Little Birds and One Love – at 84 Oakley Street, Dennis Morris told the audience.

Morris was told as a schoolboy that he as a Black man could never become a photographer. However, aged just 14, he toured with Marley and the Wailers and went on to become his official photographer. Morris’ intimate, iconic images of Marley helped define the visual legacy of reggae worldwide.

Dennis Morris: Music + Life is currently exhibiting at The Photographers’ Gallery until 28 September. At Chelsea Arts Festival, Marley’s Chelsea story was brought to life by actor Darryl Foster.

Martha Gellhorn – 72 Cadogan Square

Following a reading by Alex Hinston, the BBC’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet OBE told us about the extraordinary life of war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, who, she remarked, is sometimes better known as the (third) wife of Earnest Hemingway. ‘Some of the American magazines would actually put her byline as Mrs Hemingway and she would have to contact them and say, “I told you it’s Martha Gellhorn, not Mrs Hemingway.”’

Doucet, who has just published The Finest Hotel in Kabul, a vivid history of recent Afghan history, shares so much with the pioneering journalist, whose determination, wit and grit saw her reach the Normandy Beaches for the D-Day landings before Hemingway. Both believe that the real story of war is the human story and that real journalism is about being on the ground – ‘breathing, seeing and feeling it so as to better understand it’.

Stephen Fry At Chelsea Arts Festival

Stephen Fry spoke to Hannah MacInnes at Blue Plaques Talk Back, one of many events happening this weekend (18–21 September) as part of Chelsea Arts Festival. Brand new to the streets of Chelsea, the four-day cultural festival features talks and panels from across the creative industries, with Matt Haig, Allie Esiri, David Byrne and more still to come. You can find the full programme on the Chelsea Arts Festival website. Tickets are still available to purchase for events at Cadogan Hall, Saatchi Gallery and the Royal Court Theatre.

Wondering what happened on day one of Chelsea Arts Festival? Find out here.