Oscar Wilde's first stage play, Vera (or, the Nihilists) is perhaps his least well-known. A four-act drama, Wilde's inspiration came in part from the real-life Russian revolutionary Vera Zasulich, whose failed assassination of St Petersburg governor Fyodor Trepov sent shockwaves throughout the international community. With the British media only too willing to stoke concerns of potential Russian espionage and the government of the day concerned of how the escalating turbulence might inspire similar uprisings in Ireland, tensions in Britain were running high and public response to Wilde's drama was decidedly soured.

More than a century on, Wilde's work finds itself still strikingly relevant. Revised and reimagined, this new staging of Vera - the first British revival of the play in over twenty years - examines power, revolution, and idealism with characteristically Wildean wit and incisiveness.