Literary lion meets revolutionary firebrand in 'Vera Wilde' musical

They seem like quite an odd couple: Oscar Wilde, Edwardian literary lion and aesthetic dandy, and Vera Zasulich, Russian revolutionary firebrand.

But Wilde's first play, "Vera, or The Nihilists," was inspired by Zasulich's radical exploits. And though Oscar and Vera never met, they share the stage in a new musical by Seattle composer Chris Jeffries, which starts previews tonight at Empty Space Theatre.

"I'd wanted to do an Oscar Wilde project for ages," says Jeffries, "and I was fascinated by the idea of 'Vera.' It was a bad romantic melodrama and a huge flop when it opened in New York in 1883, but also a much grittier play than 'The Importance of Being Earnest' and Wilde's other comedies."

What later catalyzed Jeffries to write and compose "Vera Wilde" were his reactions to the 1999 WTO demonstrations in Seattle. "I observed the labor rallies, the protest actions on Capitol Hill, the civil disobedience," he says.

"Something clicked. I read 'Vera,' and I got very curious: What was inside Oscar, fresh out of Oxford University and on this art-for-art's-sake bandwagon, that made him write his first play about a Russian revolutionary? And a few years later, to write the essay 'The Soul of Man Under Socialism'? What was that subversive spark, that revolutionary spirit inside the social climber and bon vivant?"

Though never as famous as Wilde, Zasulich was (briefly) a celebrity in her own right. Raised in privilege, she became a dedicated socialist and, at age 30, shot and wounded Dmitri Trepov, the governor general of St. Petersburg — a man despised for his harsh treatment of the lower classes.

She was arrested for this violent act of protest, and her trial for attempted murder became an international media event and a harbinger of the Russian Revolution to come.

In "Vera Wilde," Jeffries and director Allison Narver keep two biographical narratives in motion. One starts with Wilde's exile in France, after serving jail time in England on indecency charges stemming from his homosexuality. The other track follows Vera from rebellious young girl, to exiled activist, to socialist leader and, finally, critic of Bolshevism and, says Jeffries, "political has-been."

"We go backward through Oscar's life, forward in Vera's, and the two kind of meet in the middle," notes Narver. "We want to investigate the relationship between art and politics, and what it means to be an outlaw."

"Vera Wilde" is the first new, full-blown stage musical from Jeffries in five years. Most of his engagingly offbeat earlier tuners ("Maggie Cassidy," "The Fatty Arbuckle Spookhouse Revue") were presented under Narver's direction at Annex Theatre, in the late '80s and the '90s.

In 1997, the Empty Space debuted Jeffries' "Moon of My Delight," a curiosity based on an eerie Nathaniel Hawthorne tale.

Now Jeffries is immersed in "Vera Wilde," which features noted actor Nick Garrison as Wilde, Julie Rawley as Vera, and a dozen eclectic musical numbers, backed up by Jeffries on piano and two other musicians.

"The production has a cabaret feel to it," says Narver, "a simplicity. The actors walk onto the stage as themselves, and you watch as they become their characters."

Does Jeffries worry that Wilde has been overexposed of late? In recent years, a half-dozen new books on him have come out, Stephen Fry starred in a Wilde biopic, and the Moises Kaufman play, "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde," was seen in Seattle and across the country.

"Well, our huge challenge is different: We're telling two stories," says Jeffries." One is about someone extremely famous. The other is someone practically nobody's heard of, but she was one of Oscar's first muses."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com.