Dorian Gray

Am really interested in hearing any theatre reviews about KADS 'Dorian Gray' as I'm planning to see the show next week, and nothing has, as yet, come up on the ITA website. Any feedback would be great.

Hello Kim, nice to see you on this page at last! What are you doing up at this hour?

MMM

I had the pleasure of attending last Saturdays showing of Dorian. I had no real idea of what to expect......and fortunately enjoyed the show. The first half had some great one liners...had lots of giggles. Sitting with Dorian's (Troy's) dad I kept getting asked "Are these guys all gay?". I assured him that our son at least was not...and because of the family connection won't comment on his performance further.

Must admit Basil was my favourite, he was so passionate about Dorian. I was shocked at how he was treated by Dorian in the 2nd half. Harry had a menacing, manipulative persona from the moment he walked on stage which made me dislike his character from the start. I wanted Basil to try harder to keep him away from Dorian.

Loved all the ladies...epecially Sybil was so naive and Dorian treated her so badly. The "lady of the night" in the second act was very convincing...hope she gets over her habit and finally returns home.

This was my first visit to KADS on a Saturday night...will definitely do it again...if only for the FISH AND CHIPS.

WHAT: The Picture of Dorian Gray
WHEN: Friday, February 28 (2003)
WHERE: KADS, Kalamunda (WA)

According to the programme, this stage version of Oscar Wilde's tale was written by Roger Parsley and first produced in 1997. Most people are familiar with the story, I'm sure. In Victorian London, Dorian Gray is immortalised on canvas. As Dorian grows more wicked and corrupt he remains eternally youthful, yet his portrait - the mirror of his soul - becomes ever more aged and vile.

I know it's selfish and petty, but dammit, I was disappointed not to see the picture. I was expecting a nice portrait of nice Troy at the start, to be replaced throughout the production by ever more distorted perversions. Oh well, it was probably a good call. The portraits would have had to have been damn good or else risk audience ridicule. Plus there's also the fact that forcing the audience to imagine the defilement of the picture is far more effective than a presented example. Let's face it, is there anyone who wasn't disappointed when Luke pulled Darth Vader's helmet off?

That last comment just about summed up the style of much of the script. As one person described it, it's one long homo-erotic manifesto. There were some real laugh-out-loud Wilde-isms, but there were some extremely unsubtle references to "the love that dare not speak its name".

Nevertheless, the story is immensely popular and well-known, touching as it does on most people's holy grail: eternal youth. At the same time, it's chilling to watch the deterioration of an initially upstanding person, and the consequences of his nihilism.

Troy Hall was the perfect Dorian Gray. His corruption was nicely portrayed, though it took a little time to get going. I thought Act 1 was a little slow, but that's just my opinion. We had to wait until the end of the Act before the major plot point - Dorian realising the painting was reflecting the corruption of his soul. After that, Troy's - sorry, Dorian's - dementia was really quite frightening. His wicked glee at other people's horror was unsettling.

The other major characters were the artist, Basil Hallward (Peter James Niblett), and Lord Henry Wotton (Kurtis Crisafulli). Both of these characters portrayed aspects of Wilde himself. Lord Henry did little other than spout devastating one-liners and espouse the "if it feels good, do it" philosophy, whilst Basil, between brushstrokes, constantly revered the handsome young Babar - sorry, Dorian - claiming life would have no meaning without him. The character of Basil fared a little better, in that he was permitted to display a range of emotions. His disbelief upon seeing the corrupted painting was palpable. Kurtis had less to work with, but did manage to bring some sympathy and dimensionality to his character - particularly in Act 2.

Scott Northover and Brooke Silcox portrayed James and Sybil Vane. Sybil (an actress) fell in love with Dorian, but after a particularly poor performance (with some nice coarse acting from Brooke), Dorian unceremoniously dumped her. Her brother James vowed to avenge her. Both were a little bit quiet at first, but did pick up - particularly with James's convincing rage when he finally confronts Dorian.

Gareth Sambridge played a minor but wonderfully conceived victim of Dorian's blackmail. From the instant Gareth entered, we knew he didn't want to be there, and had nothing but contempt for Dorian. Jenny McCann had a marvelously flighty and oblivious role as Lady Marborough, then (in another role) participated in some hot chick-on-chick action with sultry stage goddess Julia Dalby, as Dorian prowled the Red Light district. My God, that woman can do Cockney whore in her sleep. :-)

The set was perfectly painted, thanks to Andrea Berry, and nicely constructed by Norm & George in the wee small hours. Leoni's wardrobe was stunning!

Overall, I thought it took a little time to get going, and then finished a bit abruptly, but there was a lot of fun and a few chills along the way. I say it every time then forget, but next time I go see Wilde on stage, I'm taking pen and paper to try and catch some of those one-liners. Thanks to director Tim Edwards and KADS.

JB

Finally went and saw the Picture of Dorian Gray last Saturday night and since I'm still relatively new to this whole reviewing thing ... bear with me :)
TROY
I thought that he was extremely well-cast in the role of Dorian ... He's such a pretty boy :p It's that alabaster skin. He barely missed a beat on stage and I honestly don't think Tim Edwards could have picked better Dorian. I've seen Troy in a number of roles before but I honestly believe this was the first one that actually did his talent justice ... I was very impressed. The stutter, the wide-eyes, the descent into madness was fantastic. He has an amazing presence and a real naturalism to his acting style.
PETER
I thought he was extremely strong in the first act of the play although he did seem to drop off a little at the end. However, this in no way detracted from the fact that he too is a very talented man. His passion for Dorian and his art really was believable ... he managed to present an extremely believable and sympathetic character. There was one point in the play where I thought he had actually cut-off one of Troy's lines of which I was later told was exactly what they were aiming for ... to make it appear as if Dorian really had more to say ... well congrats, you had me fooled.
CURTIS
I felt that Curtis was too young for the role ... I really felt it should have been an older man ... but that's just my opinion. Plus his accent was sometimes hard to understand ... it was slightly jarring - especially when compared to Lady Narborough. He acted well but it seemed that as the other characters became affected by Dorian's descent into madness, Harry remained exactly the same ... I just felt that it would have been more effective if Curtis' character shown some awareness that Dorian had far surpassed him in the debauchery stakes.
LADY NARBOROUGH
Jenny was brilliant as usual ... her accent was flawless, her performance smooth and strong ... and she looked gorgeous! Jenny was great.
JULIA
I agree with Jarrod, that woman could play a cockney whore with her eyes closed ...
SCOTT
I loved the earthiness of his character ... it really impressed me that he managed to really humanise James. You honestly beleived that he would kill anyone who hurt his sister. He had the brotherly protection thing down pat.
BROOK
I don't know what it was but unfortunately I felt like she was missing something as Sybil Vane. To start, I really didn't like the call on her costuming. The wig was horrendous ... although I've been told that what it replaced is actually an improvement. It was highly unflattering and more than a little distracting. She's a very attractive girl but her costumes were simply unflattering ... the dress seemed to big for her, and her makeup looked like paint. She was supposed to be a theatre actress but Dorian claimed she wasn't a painted actress, but that's what she looked like. Ir really detracted from the beleivability of Dorian's love for her. Not only that but there seemed to be no chemistry at all between Dorian and Sybil.
If I've missed anyone else I'm sorry. In all, I thought that the show had some really talented actors and actresses who did an impressive job with what they had to work with, but it wasn't one of my favourite shows. However, this is a criticism of the script, not what the director and actors did with it.

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Hey everyone,

i'm belong to a student theatre club in a university in Singapore and we are thinking doing a play on Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray.

We love the story and would love to do it for our next production. Does anyone has the script version of the story? Is there anyway i can get it?

please tell me if you do know. Thanx a million.

regards,
Charlene

Charlene
Contact Tim Edwards on 08 9257 2698 (West Australia) he has just produced it.
George