Famous literary love triangle revisited

TOURISTS AND visitors to St Ann’s Church in Dawson Street were surprised to be swept up in a period re-enactment of the marriage of Bram Stoker on Saturday afternoon.

Outside the church an urchin handed out copies of The Irish Timesof December 5th, 1878 – the issue which carried the announcement of the wedding between "the second son of the late Abraham Stoker of the Chief Secretary's Office Dublin Castle, to Florence, third daughter of Lieut-Col Balcombe, late of the 57th regiment and Royal South Down Militia".

Inside the church handsome young men in top hats ignored loud speculation as to the nature of the “love triangle” between Bram, Florence and “the notorious Oscar Wilde” as they showed somewhat nervous tourists and fellow actors to their seats.

As two pasty-faced women in bonnets and full-length frocks rose to gossip loudly about the social morals of the day, Oscar Wilde himself arrived in high agitation, later emitting a prolonged howling cough as the vicar, assisted by a figure in full scarlet robes – intoned the traditional question, “If any person here present knows of any lawful impediment . . .”

Director Estelle Clemens based the re-enactment on “a collection of the kinds of conversations that might have happened in this closed group of glitterati at the centre of Dublin in 1878, the ways they might have interacted with each other, and the reactions they may have had to the wedding.”

The re-enactment was part of Dublin City Council's One City, One Book initiative, which is currently featuring events related to this year's chosen book, Bram Stoker's Dracula.

“Most academics,” Clemens wrote in the programme notes, “observe that the difference between Oscar Wilde and many other men of his time was Oscar’s refusal to keep quiet about [the affair].”

Although we know Stoker best as the author of Dracula, his personality was much more reserved than the flamboyant Oscar. To his friends he was English actor Henry Irving's manager. He idolised Irving, who was also portrayed on Saturday along with his wife Florence, née O'Callaghan: "Is everyone to marry a Florence?" she whined.

And as for speculation about the nature of the relationship between Bram, Oscar and Florence, Clemens pointed out that critics often mention that Oscar and his wife, Constance, née Lloyd, had more children than Bram and Florence.

“I . . . prefer to let people wonder,” she said.