The outstanding Eryn Jean Norvill takes on every role in this Oscar Wilde adaptation by STC artistic director Kip Williams that's coming to Arts Centre Melbourne. Exploring the chaotically spiralling aftermath of a Faustian pact for eternal youth, The Picture of Dorian Gray offers a fascinating insight into out selfie-obsessed times.
“I was having a conversation with a colleague of mine… about our culture’s obsession with youth, and our obsession with constructed identity and selfie culture, and we were talking about how you might make a work that could start to unpack and challenge those ideas,” Williams says. “Dorian Gray feels like a timely piece to investigate.”
All the more so now, given our time lost in the digital desert these past few years. Speaking of which, the show uses the live video technology that Williams deployed to such remarkable effect in Suddenly, Last Summer and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
This production continues the collaboration between Williams and Norvill, who first worked together on a 2013 staging of Romeo and Juliet which reframed the action through Juliet’s perspective. After a five-star performance in Sydney, The Picture of Dorian Gray finally gets its Melbourne outing as part of Rising 2022.
Tickets for The Picture of Dorian Gray go on sale February 28.
