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.
Poems were odes not only to Wilde but to the women who inspired his words.
‘Three ounces of requiescat’ was inspired by his younger sister, Isola, who died tragically at the age of nine.
In honour of her life. Wilde wrote her a poem after her passing. Kathryn’s piece anchors their memory in the present moment.
‘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 development of the Irish Literary Revival—a late nineteenth and early twentieth century movement that sought cultural sovereignty for Ireland in the face of English political rule.
Supposedly fashioning herself after Celtic Sovereignty goddesses—who embody the land—she is the fiery spirit remembered in the lines of Kathryn’s piece.