REVIEW: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Auckland Arts Festival)

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Performed by actress Eryn Jean Norvill and constructed by a hardworking crew of camera-people (Babi Bertoldi, Zoltan Jonas, Sam Steinle, Josh Vellis, Sean Waite and Simon Croker) and technicians, The Picture of Dorian Gray is an epic, bold multimedia adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel.

Adapted and directed by Kip Williams, Dorian Gray is a maximalist expertise – providing costume adjustments, break up screens, and even some reside superimpositions, combining pre-recorded footage of characters with the reside performer.

Some of it feels just like the present’s ambitions run amok, however because the story proceeds, and the title character turns into extra indifferent from the world, that multiplicity of efficiency appears like Gray’s demons effervescent as much as destroy him.

The use of a number of cameras onstage, filming Norvill from a number of angles, and projected on a wide range of screens of assorted sizes (which transfer across the stage in varied configurations) creates a multiplicity of pictures, fragmented collages of characters, piecing collectively a way of the character’s interiority. 

One of the present’s most unusual facets is its use of cinematic strategies and processes – notably its use of the close-up. Formerly one of many main variations between the medium of theater and movie, having a projection of Norvill’s face permits for extra refined efficiency decisions, and produces an intimacy between the performer and the viewers.

What additionally stands out in regards to the manufacturing is its emphasis on digicam motion over enhancing. Despite the variety of screens, transitions and totally different environments, enhancing – reducing pictures collectively – is averted (per my recollection). Editing is an inherently mental train – the juxtaposition of pictures are like numbers in an equation, which we put collectively to create new which means. In comparability, digicam motion, whether or not panning between characters or tilting up (or down) to register data, carries the potential for evoking emotional shifts, to recommend revelation, a shift in energy, or temper or intention.

When these assorted strategies work, the present is an epic meditation on the totally different roles individuals play, their inside conflicts, the blurry line between the non-public and public self, and the queer subtext underpinning Gray’s motivations and relationships (and one of many key examples of the present’s use of close-ups).

Central performer Eryn Jean Norvill manages a herculean job, not simply by way of juggling totally different characters (and costume adjustments), however in sustaining a mode of efficiency that may work as a chunk of reside theater, whereas having the ability to register on digicam with out having to regulate for the elevated scrutiny it permits.

I left the manufacturing fascinated by its development, and watching its shifting items come collectively. The video work (designed by David Bergman) is memorable, and collectively with lighting supervisor Nick Schlieper and composer-sound designer Clemence Williams, helps to keep up the ambiance of the piece.

I can’t say I used to be moved by it.

There have been a couple of factors the place it felt just like the present was overtaken by its personal kind. Perhaps that is the results of watching so many exhibits made on the sniff of an oily rag, however there have been instances throughout the present the place I felt like there was not sufficient left for the viewers’s personal creativeness. There is a lot use of screens, and photographs of characters appearing in different environments, that it begins to really feel overwrought, and begins to impede the affect of Norvill’s efficiency. 

It additionally feels slightly too literal – by the dint of being a solo piece, the present is already being narrated. I virtually wished the present grew to become smaller because it went alongside, changing into extra indifferent from actual props and units.

The individuals I went with loved it, and I didn’t hate the expertise, however I did go away questioning the impact of the manufacturing’s ambition on the textual content. At the very least, as a merging of various media varieties and languages, it’s a textual content value experiencing.

The Picture of Dorian Gray performs Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre 18th to the twenty fifth of March 2023 as a part of the Auckland Arts Festival.