Wonderland Theatre ©2003-2009




The Picture of Dorian Gray

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The Sunday Times
Performed in the round at the James Joyce Tea Room at Bewley's Cafe, this production creates an intimacy designed to amplify the nuances on Oscar Wilde's gothic take on the libertarian credo. Dorian Gray (Michael Winder) evolves from a callow narcissist to soulless killer, his journey is observed by his artist friend, Basil (Michael James Ford), and his predatory Svengali, Lord Henry (Simon Coury), with Ford and Coury also playing a number of smaller parts. An exquisite adaptation by Alice Coghlan, who also directs, sees all three characters narrating events, which has the effect of drawing the audience in, as the actors move through the tables, and implicate the audience in Dorian's immorality. A deceptively sedate pace belies a wealth of compelling narrative while a judicious use of Wildean epigrams distracts from the suddenness with which Dorian is transformed into a monster. All three performances are strong, although the initially cherubic Winder is superb in revealing the full ramifications of the "horrible sympathy" he enjoys with his alter ego.

Declan Burke
The Sunday Times
Reviewed: Sunday 2nd May 2010
Irish Theatre Magazine
The problem with The Picture of Dorian Gray is that it is seriously over-written, even by Oscar Wilde's standards. However, the style of the book is a self-conscious gesture of verbosity. When the book was first published in 1890, it attracted notoriety for being "unclean," "effeminate," and "contaminating." Republished in 1891, Wilde was at pains to disguise the homoerotic undertones of the story in as much social decorum as he could pile on, resulting in several extra unnecessary chapters. This is the form of the book that exists in print today, and while The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of the best gothic stories ever imagined, it almost drowns in its own excessive style. Basically, it needs a good edit - and this is precisely what Alice Coghlan does in her excellent adaptation of the book for the stage.

Wonderland Productions theatrical interpretation The Picture of Dorian Gray takes place in a café rather than a theatre. This is the second time that the company is using the backdrop of a working food venue as staging device; their 2009 production of La Locanderia, which unfolds over a four course meal, was so successful that it is still touring nationwide. Twinning theatre with a secondary social event (in this case afternoon tea) is certainly a good marketing ploy, breaking the formality associated with the theatre, and while in The Picture of Dorian Gray Wonderland do not quite manage to make afternoon tea critical to the staging, the dainty tiered platters of cucumber sandwiches and the mahogany-hued ambience of the James Joyce Tea Rooms certainly evoke an era of civilised Victorian grandeur.

Staged at 4.30 in the afternoon, the production unfolds against the naturally lit backdrop of open windows, where the muted noises of a Grafton Street shopping day might be the "dim roar of London" that our narrator, Basil Hallward alludes to as he sets the scene for the unfolding tale of supernatural horror. Coghlan's adaptation moves seamlessly between narration and dialogic interchange, the narrated events adding pace at key junctures, as the story moves towards its inevitable uncanny end.

Michael James Ford, an expert in performing Wilde's prose works (he has adapted and performed many of his stories for the stage), brings a perfect plummy depth to his narration and a pompous passion to Basil's relationship with the radiant Dorian. Lord Henry is a less salubrious character, and with his striking pale face and bold dark eyebrows, the caped Simon Coury commands our attention in much the way that he hypnotises the decadent Dorian's, with his self-righteous philosophising and certainty about life. Meanwhile, Michael Winder - his cherubic face further softened by curls - gives us a spoilt weak Dorian, a vessel into which men and women pour their fantasies; a man without his own character; a man indeed without a soul.

Wonderland Productions' facilitate a fascinating, civilised afternoon at the theatre, and a more than satisfying version of this difficult novel, which would become the defining book of Wilde's career. For if, as Basil asserts in one of many pithy epithets about art, every painting is "a portrait of the artist not the sitter," The Picture of Dorian Gray, is perhaps as close as we get to a confessional throughout his rich creative oeuvre. Just four years after the revised edition of the book was published, he was arrested for "gross indecency" and sentenced to prison, where he would later die. Perhaps that is the true horror that haunts The Picture of Dorian Gray: Wilde's realisation of his own impending doom.

Sara Keating
Irish Theatre Magazine
Reviewed: Thursday 15th April 2010
Published: Monday 26thth April 2010
Le Cool
A three-tiered sandwich tray, a pot of tea and a dip into the dainty, yet dark world of Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray is the immersive- and extremely well constructed latest offering from the veritable Wonderland Productions.

The play was notoriously used against Wilde when he was put to trial on charges of sodomy in 1895. Dorian Gray is a beautiful young man who goes about the business of breaking hearts and ruining lives following the projection of his soul onto a portrait of him done by a male admirer. Themes of art, love, sex and vanity are explored throughout Alice Coghlan’s adaptation of this classic text in which the narrative’s anti-hero stays forever young while growing steadily depraved.

The actors play wonderfully with the script and keep their audience’s attention throughout. Catch this classic while you still can.

Shaun Dunne
Le Cool
Thursday 22th April 2010
Metro Herald
The muse of earnest painter Basil Hallward (Michael James Ford, pictured on the left) and plaything of nefarious Lord Henry (Simon Coury, right), beautiful Dorian (Michael Winder, centre) makes a Faustian pact never to grow old while instead his portrait ages. It’s not long, however, before the trade-off becomes clear – in selling his soul for youth, his likeness grows older and uglier with every sin he commits.

It’s a well-known Gothic horror – and this year’s Dublin: One City, One Book selection – but few actors have played out the opium highs and wretched lows in a café during real-time afternoon tea.

Adapted and directed by Alice Coghlan for Wonderland Productions, the three actors move convincingly around the tea rooms – no mean feat, given the unnervingly close proximity to their audience, and also a lack of ‘eerie’ lighting design. But whether picking out a carnation from a table display or wafting incense under our noses to evoke an opium den, they do so with relish. Elfin Winder is perfectly cast as lord snooty Dorian, while Coury’s jaded rake Lord Henry is the perfect foil to Ford’s tragic Basil.
Also, Alun Smith deserves a Victoria sponge for his subtle sound design, ranging from gentle birdsong during garden scenes to clattering street noise.

Lucy White
Metro Herald
Thursday 22th April 2010
Culch.ie
The tea-room was filled with the rich odour of brewing coffee, and when the light spring sun cast it’s gentle rays across the spanning windows the dim roar of Grafton Street was no more than the bourdon note of a distant organ. No, you haven’t fallen into a decadent drawing room circa 1890 but an afternoon of delicious temptation with a production of Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”

Wonderland Productions, in association with Dublin One City One Book present afternoon tea with a Wilde twist in the James Joyce Tea Rooms in Bewley’s, Grafton Street. Acted and narrated by Lord Henry (Simon Coury), Basil (Michael James Ford) and Dorian (Michael Winder) the play is intimate and thoroughly charming. Shared narration of the text intermingled with the dialogue means that the play loses little of Wilde’s delicious flair for description.

For those who have been living under an illiterate rock all of their lives The Picure of Dorian Gray is the scandalous fiction of a young man, Dorian, who around the turn of the 20th century, arrives in London having inherited his estranged grandfather’s house. His new friend Basil, inspired by Dorian’s beauty paints his portrait, arguably Basil’s best work. On seeing the portrait and under the influence of Lord Henry, Dorian wishes that he could stay young and beautiful forever. (A deal that in this production, either by coincidence or wonderful foresight was ominously struck in symphony with nearby Grafton Street bells.)

“If I could get back my youth, I’d do anything in the world except get up early, take exercise or be respectable.”

Somehow this wish is granted and the sins of Dorian’s hedonistic life of indulgence, alcohol, drugs and sexual deviancy are borne out on the portrait as the true reflection of his soul while his handsome face remains unmarred by the turn of time.

Witty, sexy and dark, The Picture of Dorian Gray is my all time favourite book as can be evidenced by a snap shot of my book shelf, (yes, I have it in different languages but we all have our indulgences) and this afternoon delight was just wonderful.
Culch.ie
Saturday 17th April 2010
Sunday Business Post
Wonderland Productions’ adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s classic gothic horror fiction doesn’t take itself too seriously. This daytime theatre, set in and around the tables of a buzzing city centre cafe, offers an accessible version of Wilde’s tale to audiences who can enjoy afternoon tea as the drama unfolds.

As we sip tea and nibble from tiered cake stands of pastries, scones and cucumber and ham sandwiches, artist Basil (Michael James Ford) explains to his visiting friend Lord Henry (Simon Coury) about a portrait he has painted of a beautiful youth, Dorian Gray (Michael Winder), with whom the artist is infatuated.

This fine work of art is denoted here by an empty picture frame, requiring the audience to fire up their imagination to see what a fine painting it might be. Basil and Henry agree it is a wonderful portrait - ‘‘he looks like he’s made of ivory and rose leaves’’ - and when Dorian sees the finished work, he is in awe of himself.

But his admiration sours with the realisation that his youthful beauty is ephemeral. ‘‘How sad it is," Dorian despairs. ‘‘I shall grow old and horrible and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young."

In order to stay forever young as the picture grows old, he trades his soul. And so begins a story which explores aestheticism, morality and duplicity.

Under Alice Coghlan’s direction, the cast fare ably under such intimate scrutiny from the audience.

As the actors have nowhere to hide, neither does the audience, all of whom sit facing different directions in bright daylight. A minor quibble would be that the show’s running time (100 minutes with no interval) could have been tighter.

But with some amusing performances and Wilde’s many quotable quotes (‘‘Murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner’’), this show breathes new life into afternoon tea.



Helen Boylan
Sunday Buisness Post
Sunday 25th April 2010
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