Last night Stuart and I went to see one-woman show The Picture of Dorian Gray at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Wow!
Starring Sarah Snook (yes, Shiv Roy off of Succession) the play sees the actress play 26 characters in the show, which is based on Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel.
It’s beautiful, brilliant, breathtaking and maniacally unmissable.
Technology plays a central role, with Snook surrounded by a multiple camera crews so her performance can be beamed on to overhead screens. Often, these screens display pre-recorded performances of Snook portraying other roles, so that she, and the characters are all able to interact with one another.
The result is technically adroit and complex - the team of stage managers play almost as important a part as Snook.
It’s fantastically done and the vision mixing makes it hard to say where the live feed ends in the pre-recorded imagery begins. It’s very funny too as Snook, in character, starts to argue with herself.
It’s as much a joyous cutting-edge piece of mixed-media art as it is a Wildean debate on morality versus self-expression.
As Dorian Gray, whose picture ages in the attic while he remains forever young, begins to realise his own invincibility his use of selfie filters and Instagram digital doctoring is a dramatic masterstroke by director Kip Williams.
The vanity and image-consciousness, that lies at the heart of the tale, is fantastically realised live before our eyes.
If you like your Victorian melodrama camp yet cutting - this is the show for you.
It is a virtuoso performance from Snook and an astonishing piece of theatre.
We loved it. Go see.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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