Odes to Wilde women

 
 

A night of theatrics, poetry and tea, hosted by Le Supper Club. Featuring lines recited from The Importance of Being Earnest, the dinner party was a dedication to Oscar Wilde. Kathryn’s poetry punctuated the evening, with lines read aloud between each course by couples who took turns at breathing life into each line of every verse.

 

For the women of Wilde’s words.

‘Three ounces of requiescat’ was inspired by Oscar Wilde’s younger sister, Isola, who died tragically at the age of nine¹.

In honour of her life. Wilde wrote her a poem after her passing. Kathryn’s piece anchors their memory in the present moment.

 
 
 
 

Poem ‘Speranza’ is named after the nom de plume of Lady Jane Wilde.

From behind the veil of her pen name, Oscar’s mother played a significant role in the Irish Literary Revival—a movement that sought cultural sovereignty for Ireland in the face of English political rule².

Supposedly fashioning herself after Celtic Sovereignty goddesses—who embody the land—Lady Jane Wilde is the fiery spirit remembered in the lines of Kathryn’s piece.

 
 
 
 

In honour of the nightingale.

‘The nightingale and the rosé’ is an ode to the bird who bled for love in Kathryn’s favourite Wilde fairy tale—a bittersweet story of adoration and sacrifice.

‘Here at last is a true lover,’ said the Nightingale. ‘Night after night have I sung of him, though I knew him not: night after night have I told his story to the stars, and now I see him. His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his lace like pale ivory, and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow.’

You can read The Nightingale and the Rose by Wilde in his collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales.

 
 

Inspired to collaborate? Correspondence is always welcome.

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