C33

By Alex Bickerstaff

Produced by Players’ Ring Theatre

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

At the height of Victorian Decadence, Oscar Wilde was the poster child of the cultural revolution – and on Valentine's Day 1895, he had it all. The fame, the fortune, the family, the boyfriend on the side, the bitter rival on the warpath, the play premiering in the West End, and the love of the public. He lost it all in 3 short months. C33 tells his downfall from two perspectives: the linear story of historical events, and the murky headspace of Reading Gaol, the infamous hellhole where - in Lock C, landing 3, cell 3 - Oscar Wilde served 2 years for his crime of Gross Indecency (being gay, and writing gay stories) alongside violent criminals and death row inmates.