It's not surprising that Creation Theatre's latest production, Jermyn Street Theatre's Pictures of Dorian Gray was fully-booked - much like their previous adaptation of a Gothic classic, Dracula (also staged in Blackwell's Norrington Room), the company have chosen a popular story and given it their own unique twist. Pictures of Dorian Gray was performed on a sparse set, with two large frames and platform-like boxes lit by free-hanging lightbulbs, and very little else to distract from the story as it unfolded.
The plot of The Picture of Dorian Gray is well-known - young Dorian Gray is painted by the artist Basil Hallward, while his acerbic friend Henry Wootton looks on. Seeing the finished portrait, Dorian wishes that he could remain young and beautiful forever, with the portrait ageing instead. Dorian's wish comes true, with devastating consequences not only for Dorian, but for the people who surround him. It's a story that has been adapted many different times, but Creation and Jermyn Street Theatre give us a particularly interesting view of the tale by rotating the cast of four in each performance. This change in cast is the reason behind the change in title, Pictures of Dorian Gray, with four potential ways the show can be played, listed in the programme as Pictures A - D. The audience is invited to come back for discounted 'Second Look' showings, and consider whether their reactions to the story change depending on whether the major characters, and Dorian in particular, are played by a man or a woman.
The performance I attended featured 'Picture D'; Helen Reuben as Dorian Gray, Augustina Seymour as Henry Wootton, Stanton Wright as Basil Hallward, and Richard Keightley as Sybil Vane. Keightley and Wright also played several of the minor roles, and, along with
According to the adaptor and director, Pictures of Dorian Gray is intended to focus on the shadowy, dark-fairytale side of the original story, rather than the elements of social satire that Wilde sprinkles throughout the novel, and it carries this off extremely well. References to Narcissus and Ophelia abound, and the story becomes both a cautionary tale about why we shouldn't put youth and beauty on a pedestal, and a pessimistic conclusion that, being fallible humans, we always will.
The small cast carried off their performances with great skill - I often forgot while watching that all four of them were used to playing several different roles in this production, as they fully inhabited the characters they played on that night. Augustina Seymour made a particularly strong Lady Henry, relishing her character's cynical take on the world and unashamedly aware of her role in Dorian's downfall. Helen Reuben's performance of Dorian's descent from fresh-faced innocent into a truly toxic anti-hero was compelling, and Stanton Wright brought heart into this story of corruption as Basil Hallward. Richard Keightley played a wide variety of roles convincingly, moving seamlessly from a tragic Sybil Vane to a furious Alan Campbell.
Pictures of Dorian Gray stays faithful to the original story while playing with the many different ways it can be interpreted, and invites the audience to take a different view of a familiar tale. While the fragmentation Dorian experiences as his (or her) life falls apart was sometimes overemphasised, Pictures of Dorian Gray is a thought-provoking performance that will make you reflect that maybe it is better to keep our flaws in plain sight.