Review: THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY, Trafalgar Studio Two, 20 January 2016

The programme of Trafalgar Studio Two's latest production reads "European Arts Company presents The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde." Sadly, not quite so. This adaptation of Wilde's only novel, has some fantastic moments, yet all in all, this production bobs frustratingly close to the brilliance and smooth wit with which Wilde's work has become synonymous.

Perhaps transferring such an imaginative and visual story to the stage is always going to be difficult. The story tells of painter Basil Hallward, who paints a glorious portrait of his close acquaintance, the beautiful Mr Dorian Grey; the picture is Hallward's best work. While sitting for his friend, Grey meets another of Hallward's acquaintances, Lord Henry Wootton, who prompts Grey to realise that his own aesthetic gifts will fade with time. Keen to pursue the life of pleasures that riches and beauty can afford, Grey idly wishes that he might remain unchanged and that his portrait will bear all physical consequence of his life and actions - which, to his astonishment, comes true. So liberated and further influenced by Wootton, Grey commits to a life of hedonism, pursuing sensual pleasure alone while the portrait remains hidden in his attic, bearing all the damage Grey inflicts on his own body and soul.

John O'Connor and Merlin Holland's - the latter being Wilde's grandson - new adaptation is somewhat mixed. At points the script just jumps from plot point to plot point - it rather lacks elegance. Then there are a number of absolutely beautiful additions, taken from Wilde's manuscripts, but removed before publication for their then-dangerous implications. Hallward says of the portrait: "There was love in every line, and in every touch there was passion" - the extraordinary beauty of Hallward's magnum opus is more poignant for these additions. Rupert Mason plays several characters and particularly shone as Hallward. His sensitive performance was subtly in keeping with the period and made the whole affair more moving - particularly in light of Wilde's later plight.

Guy Warren-Thomas was also strong as Dorian. Beneath a sweet, attractive veneer and fantastically light vocals, one couldn't help but suspect something else lurked; we never quite saw the whole picture. While he was perhaps not entirely believable as a hedonistic monster, his earlier foolishness, repentance and rapport with Mason's Hallward were not only believable, but interesting, sophisticated: exactly what you'd hope for Dorian Grey.

Overall, though, this production just doesn't live up the aestheticism expressed in the play. More extremes are needed - more decadence, more debauchery. Trafalgar Studios are stylish black-box spaces, but it seems a shame such a visual piece couldn't take place in one of London's more lavish, decorated theatres.

Perhaps the whole show could neatly be surmised by the exceedingly clever device used to represent the notorious portrait: a blank frame of wood. Ever present on the stage, though often covered, we glimpsed a quick flash of Warren-Thomas inside the portrait at the show's beginning and at its end - when the portrait is intact. Its emptiness was otherwise extremely eerie; director Peter Craze seems to consider subtle horrors best left to the imagination. The collective intrigue of the audience was palpable whenever the picture was unveiled; we imagined the effects of twenty years of sin on Dorian's once perfect picture. Then, close to the story's end, there was an extra, unnecessary glimpse of Warren-Thomas's lovely form, back inside the frame. Just when the painting ought to have been at its most hideous, the suggestion was ruined. It came so close...

All in all, this is an interesting production. Mason and Warren-Thomas are particularly strong and any Wilde fans or champions of gay rights would be intrigued by O'Connor and Holland's sensitive reinstatements to Wilde's dialogue. It feels just that Wilde's story can finally be told more fully.

The Picture of Dorian Grey runs at Trafalgar Studio Two until 13 February 2016.

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