Dance Review: Dorian Gray

Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray, Sheffield Lyceum, 26/09/09

Sheffield is an interesting place. Being the snooty Londoner that I am, I suspected my weekend visit to Tim's stomping ground to be filled with tours of old mines and mills; all the while expecting to be stared at by incomprehensible locals and gagging on the stench of cow excrement. The city centre is, of course, like any other; and slap bang in the middle sit the Crucible and Lyceum theatres. Culture: how lovely! Tim's parents arranged a nice little trip for he, his sister and I to see Matthew Bourne's dance adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. And that's how I came to be sat in Sheffield on a mild September night.

Put simply, the show was a treat. The adaptation and modernisation of the story was simple, clever, and completely effective. Set in the brutal fashion world, Dorian is a narcissistic and self-important waiter-turned-model, the new face of "Immortal for Men"; Lord Henry Wooton becomes Lady H, Dorian's mentor, lover, and eventual betrayer; Basil Hallward is an obssessive fashion photographer (whose murder is probably the most brutally disturbing I have ever seen on stage, short of Kenneth Brannagh in Mamet's Edmond at the National in 2003); and Sybil Vane becomes Cyril Vane, principal dancer in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake (who Dorian leaves to die of a drug overdose). The portrait? How about a sinister harbinger of death in the form of the "other" Dorian dancer, hovering about Dorian's life, especially as it becomes more hedonistic, selfish, crazed and uncontrolable?

Let's get the baser elements out of the way, first, shall we? The dancers - male and female - were HOT. And I mean HOT. That's better.

Apart from being an intelligent and accessible adaptation, the show was in turns funny, frightening and unashamedly more explicit than Wilde's already somewhat scandalous novel could ever have been. Bourne, who is interviewed in the programme, explains his choices based on his interpretation: -

"I can't imagine that there is anyone left who is shocked by homosexual relationships in the 21st Century [...] I certainly don't believe that I am taking many liberties with Wilde's story. Wilde suggests that Dorian leaves a trail of infamy, humiliation, suicide and even murder behind him [...] Senseless violence and explicit sex can still be shocking to a modern audience, but strangely more so in the world of dance than in any other art form [...] Dorian Gray is not a pretty story - an ugly story about beauty if you will - I think that the staging should reflect that."

Let's talk about the dancers again. Obviously, with Bourne being a big name in the dance world, he gets good dancers, but my goodness were this lot good! Each and every member of the cast clipped his or her movements excellently, and balance and grace were perfectly pitched; of course they were, this is Matthew Bourne! Special mention must go to Michaela Meazza as Lady H and Jason Piper as Basil Hallward, both of whom are as good actors as they are dancers. Jared Hageman was watchable as Dorian, but perhaps because I was more enthralled by the other two's performance I felt he could have been stronger with his facial expression of cruelty and the realisation of his fate. I also fancied the ballet shoes off Adam Maskell who played the Doppelganger Dorian. He could doppel my ganger anytime he likes. Crude but true.

The other technical elements of the show were flawless. Live and recorded music was economic as well as aptly composed, while the most immediate spectacle was the rotating stage with one wall built into the centre, enabling deft scene changes.

This is probably the second dance performance I have ever seen (I'm more of a drama man), but after seeing this production, I have no doubt the dance world is in safe hands.