Sarah Snook (Photo: Marc Brenner)

The Picture of Dorian Gray

By Carol Rocamora

Ever heard of "cinetheatre"?

You'd better get used to the term describing this groundbreaking new theatrical form. It's making a dramatic impact on the Broadway stage this season, and it's a harbinger of a whole new technological trend to come.

You have to see it to believe it. It's too complicated to describe.

But bear with me, and let me try - by giving you an example of one moment in The Picture of Dorian Gray, the sensational adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 1891 novel now playing at the Music Box Theatre, written and directed by Kip Williams.

Two characters stand before you onstage, talking to each other. But only one of them is real and live. The other is video-recorded, and you can't tell the difference. They're joined by others, all previously video-recorded, too. Et voila - a scene of five characters seated at a table, all in conversation (recorded), plus one live actress standing next to them, narrating (live). Guess what? They are all played by the same actress.

Who is she? Her name is Sarah Snook, and she's the only actress in the entire production that features twenty-six different characters. Yes, she plays them all, thanks to the radical concept of the visionary Australian director Kip Williams (pioneer of "cinetheatre"), with his team of five cameramen and numerous dressers who are onstage throughout to make this theatrical miracle happen.

Sarah Snook (Photo: Marc Brenner)

The remarkable Snook (an Australian-born actress of Succession fame) plays the narrator (as well as the twenty-six characters), telling Wilde's dark story of the beautiful young man named Dorian Gray whose portrait was painted by artist Basil Hallward. A decadent friend of the artist, Lord Henry Wotton, admires the portrait and becomes obsessed with Dorian Gray's beauty and youth "He was made to be worshipped," Lord Henry tells us.

Lord Henry soon lures Dorian Gray into a life of debauchery, based on the Faustian bargain that the latter will never age and will maintain his beauty forever. Instead, the portrait itself will age.  "I would give my soul to stay young," Gray says - and he does.

 

As his life grows more decadent and corrupt, the still-beautiful, youthful Dorian Gray becomes alarmed at the ugly aging of the portrait, and seals it away so no one can ever see it. He falls in love with actress Sibyl Vane, but that ends in tragedy; after he scorns her, she commits suicide. He descends into a life of crime (including murder), until he finally confronts the monstrous portrait and makes a violent choice.

Technologically, there is so much going on that you can hardly catch your breath for two continuous hours. Neither can the amazing Sarah Snook, who is onstage for the entire time and never stops talking in the twenty-six roles she plays, while also narrating.

There are actually three visual modalities happening at once - live action, live video and recorded video. Her image is frequently projected (through live video) onto a giant screen that is lowered throughout the production, while she stands behind it with a camera operator who is videorecording her image onto it. You can even see the actress's feet (or a sideview) plus the technicians in the process of recording.

Sometimes she's Dorian Gray with a curly blond wig, white lace blouse and blue silk trousers; at other times she's Basil Hallward in a golden jacket; at still other times she's the seductive Lord Henry in a purple velvet coat.  At one point they are all together onstage - one live, two videorecorded. (The stunning video design is by David Bergman.)

Special mention is due to the costume designer (Marg Horwell) for the elaborate, over-the-top attire that Snook (as each of the twenty-six characters) wears - like those mentioned above, plus Lady Agatha in her ornate dress and Sybil Vane with her masses of blond hair. Kudos also to the set designer, featuring scenes of a church interior, a stately home, a library, a forest, etc. (Scenic design by Marg Horwell, lighting design by Nick Schlieper).

 

Sarah Snook (Photo: Marc Brenner)

The visual variety is dazzling. Sometimes director Williams gives us five screens at once, lowered to reveal either five different characters or images of the same one at different angles. One of my favorite moments in this stunning show (and there are so many) is when we catch a glimpse of Dorian Gray's face on a giant screen, changing right before our very eyes. It's frightening and grotesque.

Yes, it's a play about narcissism- how can it not be? - as well as hedonism and its fatal consequences. The director even adds the song "I am gorgeous" (from The Apple Tree) to reinforce these themes.

But the technology dominates the entire spectacle. Indeed, some of the most memorable moments of this Broadway theatre season have been created through technology. Highlights include the twenty-three-foot-high image of Nicole Scherzinger as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard; the projection of George Clooney's face (as Edward R. Murrow) on a giant screen in Good Night & Good Luck; the majestic forests in Redwood; the transforming painting of Seurat's "La Grande Jatte" in Old Friends.

But what makes The Picture of Dorian Gray unique (in addition to its brilliant artistry) is that the director does not hide the technological production aspects, which are constant and uninterrupted. By showing the camera operators and dressers in full view, he's creating a new metatheatrical form before our very eyes -- or should we call it "metatechnological"?

Some of the most arresting shows of the season fall on opposite ends of the spectrum - namely, from technological spectacles to solo shows. The solo performances of Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Andrew Scott in Vanya are phenomenal, super-human achievements in the theatre, ones we will remember for a long time to come.

"The great events of the world take pace in the brain," says Lord Henry to Dorian Gray at one point. Thanks to theatre artists like Kip Williams and Sarah Snook, great events are taking place in the theatre, too.

 

The Picture of Dorian Gray

At the Music Box Theatre

239 W. 45^th St.

Through June 15

Tickets: https://doriangrayplay.com/