The picture of Dorian Gray: Based on the novella by Oscar Wilde, adapted and directed by Kip Williams for the Sydney Theatre Company at the Roslyn Packer Theatre, performed by Eryn Jean Norvill.

This production had been receiving rave reviews (R!R!R!) for several weeks before I got to see it just before Christmas. Sometimes the buzz around a piece of theatre raises expectations too high, but this show surprised and delighted me more than I had anticipated.

Oscar Wilde’s novella was a kind of gothic horror story kitted out in the naughty wit and purple prose of Victorian Aestheticism. At times highly amusing, its moral charge derives from the oppressive morality that it purports to overthrow but actually embraces… click here to read the rest of this review.