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Imaginative but wordy 'Picture' brings novel to stage
Wednesday, August 16, 2000 By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic
"What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world," asks Lord Henry Wotton of his friend Dorian Gray, "and lose his own soul?"
The question comes near the end of Oscar Wilde's startling 1890 novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," and it jump-starts Gray into the final reckoning.
A few minutes later Lord Henry says, "To get back my youth, I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable."
In other words, and in both cases, you can't have everything. So maybe it's folly to expect that a very special philosophic novel, rich in jeweled wit, redolent in period decadence and shimmering with remembered ideals and faded controversies, could also become a complete theater piece. Of this world premiere of "The Picture of Dorian Gray," as adapted by Daniel Frezza and staged with invention and skill by PICT, I find myself admiring much but left with a nagging sense of anticlimax.
On the plus side are the considerable arts of professional theater, ranging from Robert Cothran's bold and imaginative set, Aly Greaves' luscious costumes and a demonically commanding original score by Michael Moricz, to W. Stephen Coleman's careful direction and an impressive cast that's about as good as Pittsburgh gets.
Wilde's famous novel is about the lordling who is captured on canvas in the flush of innocent beauty, only to discover that the sins of his subsequent life leave no mark on his real face, while the portrait, hidden away in his attic, records every depth of his growing depravity.
Frezza's script seems faithful to the novel -- not such a good thing, perhaps -- but on examination you see how clever he has actually been, combining characters, moving events and cutting, cutting, cutting. But much of Wilde's verbal gymnastics remain, and the central dilemma is made clear to a fault.
But it's useless to talk about the script in isolation, because in production it is enhanced almost to the point of domination by that set and score. Cothran's looming brick walls and Moricz's tremuloso music move this "Dorian Gray" toward "Jekyll & Hyde" or "Jack the Ripper." Against all that, the subtle anguish of Wilde's characters and his scintillating wordplay make little headway, leading to some sense of cross-purposes.
On the whole, though, Frezza does well to melodramatize. Those stronger choices work well on stage; he should have gone further. Poor Basil, the artist, is still explaining things long after we've gotten the point; similarly, he persists in wordily misunderstanding Dorian long after we know better. Even Lord Henry's witty shockers could be curtailed. Given the production's powerful visuals, Frezza says more than we need. And director Coleman, while moving mountains, takes too long to have it all said.
Cothran's set also features a series of gilt frames decorating the stage floor, some of which rise to frame telling bits of action. It's a potent image of the power that imprisons Dorian's character, while relating also to the on-going debate about the very role and nature of art.
And then there's Dorian's picture, which graduates imaginatively from positive opacity to negative transparency to a monstrous three-dimensional garbage dump to a stunning final reassertion of the picture itself.
This is the kind of physical effect that makes talk less necessary.
The same can be said for the score, which has a stand-alone brilliance, starting with an elaborate overture, but is too insistent.
Granted, it creates most of the mystery that Wilde achieves through mood, but it tells us more than it should, preempting the play.
When not burdened as already discussed, the acting shines. Doug Mertz plays Lord Henry, the Wilde role with all the dubious but attractive epigrams, and he manages to savor the words while suggesting the man's heartless sterility. Ken Bolden is earnestness itself as Basil; it's not his fault that Basil's earnestness palls.
Lea Coco has the impossible role of the beautiful Dorian, and beautiful he is. He doesn't have quite the still center the part could use, but he is impressive. So is Maite Schwartz as the brittle, pretty, naive girl he crushes.
Most impressive in a small role is Robin Walsh as a duchess who flirts with the empty Dorian: Sitting in expectant profile, Walsh gives off sexy smolder like a Sargent portrait. As a dowager, Susan McGregor-Laine artfully plays old and then older. Darren Eliker, Andrew Paul, Bruce Hill and Bryn Jameson are strong in support.
Though timed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Wilde's tragic death from bigoted repression, this "Dorian Gray" evades the homosexual potential that is a subtext in the novel and implicit in many moments on stage.
But that's Wilde: His hardback novel pulled back on the gay implications of the first, magazine version.
In the novel, Wilde often creates by negatives -- Dorian is the experiential antithesis to Lord Henry's constant stream of wit. Imagine the difficulties this gives the adapter! So it's no surprise if Frezza hasn't conquered the mountain many others have attempted: Dramaturg Michael Ramsay's program essay cites 52 previous stage, movie, TV and ballet adaptations!
(One was the musical "Portrait" by Broadway actor Ed Dixon that premiered with some fanfare in a professional staging at Carnegie Mellon in 1987.)
Note that none of these versions has ever made a lasting stir. Frezza's attempt might even be the best yet, but it still has a taste of perverted alchemy, aiming to change what is gold in one medium into something still gold in another.
Bottom line: Who would have thought a company this young could pull off such a complex world premiere at this level of professionalism? PICT continues to surprise.
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