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Pictures of Dorian Gray, Jermyn Street Theatre, London
Innovative version of Oscar Wilde's gothic chiller
Mirroring contemporary obsessions: Pictures of Dorian Gray
[SJ Taylor ]
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ADAPTING Oscar Wilde’s only novel for the stage is no easy task but writer Lucy Shaw has done so with aplomb and originality.
While there’s a certain confused busyness towards the end, when the characters are caught up in a whirl of events as they rush to the chilling denouement, Shaw has come up with a considered and thought-provoking version of Wilde’s gothic tale.
On a dark, spooky set in which the centrepiece of the story — the changing painting of Dorian Gray — is inventively represented by a frame full of water, there are some genuinely shivery moments as we watch the eponymous protagonist, played beautifully by the suitably handsome Stanton Wright, descend into a trough of debauchery and self-delusion.
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