The Picture of Dorian Gray
Set and Costumes
Adapted and Directed by Neil Bartlett
Abbey Theatre, Dublin
photo Ros Kavanagh

"All art is quite useless," is the first line of Neil Bartlett's arresting adaptation that offers up Oscar Wilde's 1891 novel as a play within a play, one that is a cross between a dark thriller and a timeless Greek tragedy complete with a vengeful, gossip-mongering chorus who are both witnesses and accessories to the crime... Acting, and the illusions of theatre , are at the dark heart of Bartlett's production that is faithful but never literal,and which succeeds in Kandis Cook's ravishing design in offering something that exudes sumptuousness and yet – with the stage stripped back to the brick wall – is also spare and revealing. Mostly about our illusions about ourselves. It glitters artfully; it leaves us desolate" - Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 7 October 2012