A River Between Chaos and Zen - Ep. 16 - Oscar Wilde & The Ballad of Reading Gaol episode artwork

EPISODE · Apr 19, 2026 · 34 MIN

A River Between Chaos and Zen - Ep. 16 - Oscar Wilde & The Ballad of Reading Gaol

from Creative Actors Lab · host Max and Kelley Grimm

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, Max reads The Ballad of Reading Gaol, which Oscar Wilde wrote while he was in jail for two years for the crime of homosexuality, and it was inspired by Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, who was imprisoned and executed for murdering his wife. The poem highlights the brutality of the penal system, the mental suffering of inmates, and the hypocrisy of morality, featuring the famous line, "Yet each man kills the thing he loves".  Reading Gaol was a place of extreme emotional and physical suffering for Wilde, leading him to campaign for prison reform after his release. For more on Creative Actors Lab, check our website, www.creativeactorslab.com. You can always find us at our Instagram page, @creative_actors_lab, Facebook page, @CreativeActorsLab, Linked-In - Creative Actors Lab, and YouTube Channel -  @CreativeActorsLab . If you would like to support our work - this is our Patreon Page.  Thanks so much for listening!

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Apr 19, 2026

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Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Max reads The Ballad of Reading Gaol, which Oscar Wilde wrote while he was in jail for two years for the crime of homosexuality, and it was inspired by Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, who was imprisoned and executed for murdering his wife. The poem highlights the brutality of the penal system, the mental suffering of inmates, and the hypocrisy of morality, featuring the famous line, "Yet each man kills the thing he l...

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A River Between Chaos and Zen - Ep. 16 - Oscar Wilde & The Ballad of Reading Gaol

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