Unfortunately, The Picture of Dorian Gray was filmed a decade later and became instead just a mildly decadent entry in MGM’s stable of tasteful literary adaptations. A Review of an Easy Classic, Perfect for Students and Casual Readers. … If it were only the other way! Still, it plays. 'A lot of crossed fingers': how Australia's arts festivals are planning for a socially distanced summer. The plot of The Picture of Dorian Gray, if seen apart from the wit and epigrams of Lord Henry is serious and, at times, even somber. It is in possession of that most rare thing: the transformative, ineffable thing that happens when a show sidles up to you and says directly to your heart: I see you, I know you. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. How transformative it is to seen by a production so smart and tirelessly inventive. She is Lord Henry Wotton, too, with his droll smile and knowing eyes; she is Sibyl Vane and her vengeful brother James; she is every duchess and lord and broken young man, and she is dazzling. It brings ruin as shows the case of Dorian Gray. I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. We can easily see that beauty is ephemeral and any attempt to deny this fact is amoral. Classic Review: 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Francesca Gostelow 3 years ago in review. And we do. Theatre Review: STC's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Roslyn Packer Theatre No shortage of portraits on the Sydney Theatre Company stage as Oscar Wilde is re-envisioned and revered by a remarkable performance, state of the art tech and inspired directorial vision. Ernest Dempsey is a writer and a former contributor to ThoughtCo's literature section. here is a rare moment that happens in the theatre, and audiences and artists alike chase it their entire lives: the moment when a stage goes dark at the end of a performance, and after a second or two of stunned silence, the audience erupts. He describes some scenes in words that evoke a vivid image in the reader's mind. It was originally published in a shorter version in Lippinscott’s Monthly Magazine , an American literary journal, in 1890, then revised and published in book form in 1891. But then the reader is introduced to him physically and I realized he isn't all that. The consequence is a disaster. Did Uncle Tom's Cabin Help to Start the Civil War? Everyone. Wilde is not obsessed with describing settings in detail as a novelist with a constructive bent would be. The Picture of Dorian Gray Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1945 / B&W with Color inserts / 1:37 flat full frame / 110 min. The Picture of Dorian Gray addresses more than one theme. Williams has also long been interested in the intersection of live and recorded video feed onstage to explore ideas of artifice and the real, often borrowing the filmic language of melodrama and camp. Through this, the moral fable of the novel is made timeless: the ruffles and adornments of Victorian England; you’ll hear the familiar sinuous beats of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love as Gray embraces hedonism; there’s a lip-sync to a number from the 1966 Broadway musical The Apple Tree. As the story descends into murder and revenge, the staging – designed by Marg Horwell, our best queer aestheticist – explodes with colour and life. She is everything here: she is desire and sin and the mercurial performance of the self. The most disturbing aspect about Oscar Wilde’s singular work of 19th century horror literature, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is that its best rendition into cinema is, by default, Oliver Parker’s 2009 adaptation. REVIEW: The Picture Of Dorian Gray Posted on 15 December 2020 by Irina Dunn in Arts & Entertainment Stage Theatre & Performance 0 Comments Photo: Daniel Boud. The character description and motivation are again left mainly to the perceptual capacity of the readers. The artist paints a lifelike portrait of Dorian, capturing all his wonders. It is the consciousness of the owner of beauty to his own wealth that triggers the boundless fear of perishing--fear that causes his doom. This "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1973) was produced for late night TV, and the "videotape" quality shows, sadly. Minor characters like the Duchess of Harley serve the purpose of initiating or furthering topics that would ultimately be the butt of Lord Henry's repartees. Wotton casually receives Botox injections. Revised and republished in 1891. It is ambitious, exuberant and whip-smart; it is an embrace of theatre’s past, present and future; it is in fluent conversation with our screens, with our feelings, with our fears, with our collective obsessions. A key example of Gothic horror fiction, The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s only novel and a classic of modern literature. Characters: Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward, Lord Henry Wotton, Sibyl Vane, James Vane, Lady Wotton. We’ve been preoccupied with youth and beauty and showing only our most aspirational selves for a long time now, and this production both exalts in these constructs and loathes them – much like a great many of us will vacillate between the two. But the novel, in its covert meaning, is not without a moral lesson. Opinion For this first review I’m choosing the classic that I’ve used in I don’t know how many jokes or quips over the years. They clap and clap, and then clapping isn’t enough: they whistle, they trample the ground beneath them to applaud with their feet. Wilde is always testing the aesthetics of his readers and the easier you go with his characters' disposition, the greater insight you gain. Kouta 1 Hadeel Kouta Professor Youssra Mazeh Critical Review of Texts 5 February 2014 The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Critical Review In his masterpiece The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde presents the notion of good and evil and the two interpretations of human experience, being optimistic and emotional at one end, and pessimistic and intellectual at the other. Perhaps the best of these is Dorian Gray's brief journey through the dark and filthy streets that stand in an obtrusive contrast to his luxurious entourage but which also bear a remarkable resemblance to the kind of life he has embraced. The maxim of aestheticism "art for art's sake" is reflected in the opening of the novel, which specifies art's aim to "reveal the art and conceal the artist.". Sibyl Vane’s Romeo and Juliet plays out in miniature on a marionette stage. The Picture of Dorian Gray was thoroughly surprising and unexpected. Following this prelude on art and beauty, Wilde weaves a ​plot that explores the issue to its core. This production does perhaps sacrifice explicit queer male desire to instead revel in the implicit, but Williams has always been more interested in the expression of camp, especially what Susan Sontag calls the “off”, of things being what they are not (“not a woman, but a ‘woman’… to understand Being-as-Playing-a-Role.”) Sontag names this as the farthest extension of the metaphor of life as theatre, and Williams as director lives and thrives here. Eryn Jean Norvill stars in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Picture of Dorian Gray, playing all 26 characters herself. It’s witty and expansive. Wilde was not a moralist (as many of us already know) and within the book, there is not much to emphasize a moral code or right conduct. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - review. The Picture of Dorian Gray Book Review By Oscar Wilde Pg. The primary appeal of the subject of beauty, as it appears to eyes, is the main focus of the novel. Here comes a review of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Clemence Williams’ composition and sound design leads the way into anachronism via the senses, tugging at us with era-appropriate piano and dramatic chords, and Nick Schlieper’s lighting design follows suit (Gray’s opium den is a pulsing, green laser-lit nightclub). The novel – a classic of Victorian gothic laced with queer hunger – is neatly and minimally abridged here into a smartly measured, dizzyingly beautiful tour de force. Basil Hayward, an artist, is smitten by his muse Dorian Gray, who is young, innocent and beautiful and he introduces him to his best friend and worldly Lord Henry Wotton, somewhat reluctantly. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde First published in 1891; 2008 Penguin Classics edition Pages: 213 Genre: Philosophical novel, English literature “The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.” Anyone who has read dramatic fiction (Oscar Wilde in particular) will not find it hard to see the style of the story's narrative as closer to drama than a novel. A series of wigs and coats are used to transform Eryn Jean Norvill from characters ranging from the painter Basil Hallward to Sibyl Vane. She populates the world. But this picture will remain always young. Wilde reveals the tenderness of self-love, or narcissism, which sometimes fails to find an object outside itself. The Picture of Dorian Gray, as penned by the Irish wit Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), is a tale of high-brow debauchery and limitless pleasures of body and soul and the corruption, by one Lord Henry Wotton, of the young, handsome and soon to be narcissistic 19th century rock 'n roll hell-raiser Dorian Gray. I want this copy so much, leather-bound books are absolutely divine! Women, America, faithfulness, stupidity, marriage, romance, humanity, and weather are just some of the numerous targets of Wilde's criticism, which the readers receive from the sharp but sweet tongue of Lord Henry. While Dorian remains young and beautiful, the mere sight of an aging picture of him is unbearably painful. (David Bergman is the video designer, and his team of camera operators do remarkable work). It will never be older than this particular day of June. Read 50 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Setting: England, The UK. Ericxpenner / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain, Oscar Wilde's only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) is a classic instance of the aestheticism of the late 19th century's ​​English literature. Review The Picture of Dorian Gray (Sydney Theatre Company) Kip Williams' dazzling stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde's gothic melodrama, brilliantly performed by Eryn Jean Norvill, speaks to the here and now. Even books are seen as only "well written" or "badly written" and not as moral or amoral. It is a generous, thrilled, addictive show of thanks for the gift of story. The epigrams of Lord Henry shoot arrows of gentle satire on different elements of society. If you didn’t see it before, you will see it now: she is one of the most gifted actors of her generation. H ad it been shot at Universal in the 1930s, Oscar Wilde’s queer-eyed telling of the Faust legend would have fit snugly into the studio’s cycle of psychosexual horror classics. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. His wish is fulfilled and the picture starts aging instead of young Dorian. At one point, Norvill has a dinner party with seven of her selves; at another, Gray chides Norvill-the-narrator for telling his story. It is a generous, thrilled, addictive show of thanks for the gift of story. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture Of Dorian Gray tells the story of a First serialized in 1890, widely condemned as immoral and removed from shelves. Forgive me as I go back to AP English for a few moments. Mehar's book review on Dorian Gray and the underlying theme of beauty and the power that it can wield is a recurrent theme in history - of course, immortalized by Oscar Wilde. Dorian Gray, at the beginning of the novel, is perceived by Basil Hallward as an individual worth obsessing over, he is infatuated with him and without knowing Dorian yet, the reader is too. The Picture of Dorian Gray isn't awful, though it's certainly an instance in which an outright debacle would have made a much more interesting film. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, Self-Love and the Vulnerability of Beauty, A Selection of Quotes From 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', Biography of Oscar Wilde, Irish Poet and Playwright, 7 Young Adult Novels That Encourage Discussions on Racism, The Victorian Period Was a Time of Change. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is creepy. Cinematography Harry Stradling Art Direction Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters Everyone. 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