This fascinating and beautiful tale is surely one of Oscar Wilde’s most famous and powerful stories. It involves the charming and handsome Dorian Gray a man who manages to stay eternally young as his portrait on one wall begins to age and wither, both as he ages and when he commits a sin. This was Wilde’s take on original sin and redemption and has parallels with Wilde’s hidden homosexuality as the three main characters, Dorian, the artist Basil Hallward and the high society Henry Wooton all have homo-erotic underscores.
These underscores were largely re-written when it became published as a book as it first began life in 1890 as a story in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, causing great public controversy. Wilde was forced to omit and add certain aspects, this adaptation follows the original tale and is made all the better as it brilliantly conveys the erotic longing between all three characters with only one man, Keith Drinkel playing them all.
Drinkel is a veteran actor who has been in the business for over forty years and boy does it show, for he is phenomenal to watch, storming through a powerful, fierce and hypnotic one man show. He has a mastery of delivery that puts most actors to shame, his delivery is seamless and urgent. Though it has to be said he is all the better for having such great material to work with, this production is a joy to watch, both bold, charming, eerie and quite fantastic.
4/5 
Martin Miller
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