Dance Review: Dorian Gray

Published on Sunday 24 August 2008 19:53

DORIAN GRAY **** KING'S THEATRE

THE first thing that strikes you is the flesh: bare male torsos and women in black bras fill the stage, oozing sexuality as the fashion photographer snaps away. Our "hero", the beautiful and impressionable Dorian, has yet to join them, yet to be tainted by the trappings of celebrity.

Fame, and its associated highs and lows, is the central theme of Matthew Bourne's new production. It's a liberal – in every sense – adaptation of Oscar Wilde's book, which highlights the consequences of changing from a nobody into a somebody.

As promised, Bourne doesn't shy away from the implied homosexuality in Wilde's novel – within minutes of meeting, Dorian and Basil Hallward are embroiled in an alcohol-fuelled sex session, which sees them stripped down to their boxer shorts.

Turning Dorian from an unknown quantity into a marketable commodity is performed like a medical procedure, at the end of which his advertising billboard emerges – Bourne's take on Wilde's portrait in the attic. It launches Dorian into a world of drug abuse, promiscuity and, eventually, murder.

Although Bourne's trademark humour only raises its head on a few occasions, he makes up for it in style and drama.

Leaving the theatre after a Bourne production usually finds you smiling or wiping away tears. Dorian Gray leaves you pondersome and slightly disturbed – which is probably what Bourne had in mind.

Until 30 August, tomorrow 8pm.