Arriving early it was enjoyable to have a sandwich lunch with some north Londoners before the play commenced. One interesting man, a widower, had come from Chichester to view the play with a lady friend from north London,and the three of us had an enjoyable conversation together over a sandwiches before the play began.
The Invention of Love itself is not a play which for me at least, is very entertaining because much concentration on the mores of society in C19, is required. The details of life at Oxford at the time, were very interesting though.
The underlying theme is about homosexuality in days when such was illegal in the UK. Thus there was a section on Oscar Wilde imprisoned at the end of C19 for being gay, who wrote a novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray and the play The Importance of Being Ernest. The latter I have seen and enjoyed but I cannot recall reading the former. Oscar Wilde was said to have been at Oxford during the first year of the time during which the play is set (end of C19).
None the less with some concentration the play proved very watchable for the audience including myself, though I preferred Tom Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves a Favour which we saw at the National Theatre some 15 years ago.
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