REVIEW: The Picture Of Dorian Gray
With the help of advanced video technology, Kip Williams has given Sydney audiences a masterpiece of modern storytelling, signalling the way forward for future stage productions.
Video screens allow solo performer Eryn Jean Norvill to narrate the story and play all 26 characters in Oscar Wilde’s fable of vanity and moral reckoning.
It’s hard to know who to credit the most in this dazzling production – Williams for his brilliant effort in bringing it all together in a cohesive whole, Norvill for her charismatic chameleon performances as male and female characters, designer Marg Horwell, lighting designer Nick Schlieper, composer and sound designer Clemence Williams for her haunting music, and last but not least, video designer David Bergman.
The effect of all this technology, carried out against the background of a black theatre space, is to give the production a dreamlike quality as we watch Dorian entangle himself increasingly in a corruption of his spirit, carelessly ruining lives all around him, a train wreck waiting to happen.
Contributing to this illusion are the 12 techies in black who wield the camera, hand Dorian a cigarette or paintbrush as required and move the furniture around between scenes.
This is a production not to be missed.
Until Jan 9. Roslyn Packer Theatre, 22 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay. $45-$110+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.sydneytheatre.com.au
