"All art is quite useless," is the first line of the arrest of adaptation Neil Bartlett offered until 1891 Oscar Wilde novel as a play within a play, which is a cross between a dark thriller timeless Greek tragedy with a chorus gossip revenge mongering are both witnesses and accomplices of the crime. This is a good place to start, as the blonde bombshell, Dorian Gray (an excellent start Tom Canton) is a young woman who becomes a work of art to make a Faustian pact that says it is infinitely desirable and forever young. It is your heart that withers.
Dorian is the blank canvas on which others write their wishes, desires Basil Hallwood (Frank McCusker), who bares his soul (and unexpressed desires) in the table of Dorian, the Lord Henry Wotton corrupter of all, who is played by Jasper Britton vitriolic silky fabulous. Wotton language remains the owner and he collapses in old age, his eyes still shining on his face crushed like venomous old toad. Even the actress teenager convicted, Sybil, Dorian projected their desires, make the fatal mistake of appearance and reality confusion, the actual feeling and acting. Roses Dorian given a blood pit in the middle of a vase of lily funeral.
Interim
theater and illusions are dark heart of the production of Bartlett who is faithful but not literal, and succeeded in designing dazzling Kandis Cook to offer something that exudes luxury and again - with the scene stripped to the brick wall - is also free and revealing. Very close to our illusions about ourselves. It shines with art, but leaves us sorry
