Summary
In a technical tour de force, this “cine-theatre” adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s classic features a single actor performing all 26 roles, interacting seamlessly with pre-recorded video and live camera feeds. The production recontextualizes the Victorian tale of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth by framing his obsession with beauty and self-image through the lens of modern digital narcissism and surveillance.
Saturday, April 12, 2025 Apr 12, 2025
I ruined this show for everyone around me with my hiccups. Sorry y’all. I feel mortified about it. (I tried to excuse myself and come back another night but my phone fell out of reach under the seat and I thought trying to fish it out would be even more disruptive. 😞)
Anyways, I think it’s probably one of the most visually striking things I’ve ever seen in my life. I was skeptical of the Sarah-Snook-plays-everybody gimmick and, wow - it genuinely feels important to what they wanna do here - it qualifies as a “must-see” even if only for the sake of having an informed opinion about it. Advertising it as a one-woman show almost feels a little misleading; as great as she is, it really is a collective technical achievement to devise and stitch together all these imaginative visual metaphors so seamlessly, and other people are on the stage performing in supporting roles every night.
I don’t know that this is an effective way to tell the story of Dorian Gray, and I don’t know that it matters. This isn’t a play so much as it’s multimedia performance art, leveraging the story & its themes to fire a broadside at the aesthetics, technology, and culture of our time. They’re not novel criticisms, exactly, but they are uncommonly well-made. It feels like it’s in the same family as something you would see in the basement of a weirdly-well-funded arts center you’ve never heard of in Brooklyn. A rare thing to find in big-budget commercial theater.
I don’t recommend this seat. Looking at the screens is not optional and you’ll be craning your neck a lot. Sit front mezzanine and make sure you’re at least synopsis-familiar with the book before you go.
(Sarah will probably get the Tony. Her performance is certainly worthy of it, but if I had a vote, I would have some reservations about the heavy use of prerecorded footage and probably opt for Laura Donnelly.)