Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray
From August 2008
26th August 1991 is a date that I will never forget: my introduction to the world of dance. Zun by Polish outfit Teatr Ekspresji was part of that year's EIF and I can recall two things about the evening's entertainment at the King's Theatre. First, a naked man with long black hair sitting in a white enamel bath. This was not the first time that I had seen a naked man (nor for that matter a white enamel bath) but it was the first time that I had paid to do so. Second, in a break with the convention of presenting flowers, at the end of the performance the cast were given baskets of vegetables. Whether this was some sort of symbolic gesture of solidarity with the shipworkers of Gdańsk or merely a cost saving measure I do not know.
18 years on, same place, no vegetables but another naked man with long black hair sitting in a white enamel bath. There's a pattern emerging and it's not the reappearance of the bath that concerns me.
Nakedness aside, Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray is a very different production to Zun. For a start there's a story albeit one that's been pinched from Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray was based on John Gray, a young poet who became part of Wilde's literary circle. However, at the age of 33 he jacked in his job at the Foreign Office and entered the Scots College in Rome to study for priesthood. Later he was instrumental in having St. Peter's Church built in Falcon Avenue and he preached there for 27 years until his death in 1934. I only learned this after seeing the show; it kind of freaked me out as I had parked the car opposite St. Peter's Church while I was at the theatre. But then imagine what madness might have seized me if I had parked outside Bathstore in Morningside Road.
It would be interesting to know what Wilde or Canon Gray would have made of this version of Dorian Gray transported as it was from the high society of the 1890s to a sleazy postmodern take on the 21st Century fashion industry & the world of instant fame. It truly is a stunning piece deserving of the praise that has been heaped upon it. The choreography is incredibly tightly timed and the action is so frantic that it is hard to believe that there are only 11 dancers. Set design & music by Lez Brotherston & Terry Davies, both longtime collaboraters of Matthew Bourne, make this almost the perfect theatrical production.
13,000 people have come to see this in Edinburgh; a two week run at London's Sadlers' Wells starts next week and is almost sold out. Teatr Ekspresji were never this popular.