Living in Reading you can’t escape the legacy of Oscar Wilde and his notorious spell in Reading Gaol. In 2016 we experienced the extraordinary reading by Ralph Fiennes of the letter Wilde wrote to his friend Lord Alfred Douglas, De Profundis, staged in front of his cell door within the Prison gym and were held spellbound by the performance and the words for three hours. In 2017 we saw a wonderful adaption of his 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Grey by Phoebe Eclair-Powell at the Watermill in Newbury with a cast of three actresses and a minimal set. Even in lockdown we saw the wonderful adaption in 2020 in streamed theatre of the book by Henry Filloux-Bennett, the artistic director of the Lawrence Batley and staged at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester. So, it was perhaps inevitable that Reading Rep should seek to celebrate the opening of its new venue with another adaption of Oscar Wilde’s work.
The remnants of the Watermill production of The Picture of Dorian Grey can be seen as Phoebe Eclair Powell’s evolves her script with director Owen Horsley, to blend in Oscar Wilde’s own life story from acclaimed author to ostracised invalid as the book was used as evidence against him in his trial for gross indecency. They seek to emphasise the change from Victorian morality to the 2017 pardon by the Queen of men charged under the abolished law by exposing the queer undertones of the novel and challenging the audience to embrace the queer narrative. As a result, we are presented with three interwoven themes played by three performers in a bold but at times confusing and outspoken exploration of the story.
Oscar and the fictional philanthropist Henry Wotton were played by Che Francis. Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie to his friends) and Dorian were played by Andro Cowperthwaite, looking every inch the gorgeous temptation to the people they meet. Nat Kennedy makes up the trio as Oscar’s loyal friends Robbie Ross and Basil Hallwood, the painter of the portrait in the novel. They also add a modern-day element as narrators introducing references to Princess Diana, Jimmy Saville, Elvis Presley, and the Bentley (first made in 1919, 19 years after Oscar Wilde had died) and music such as Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” and “Country House” by Blur to add to the confusion of time and space.The designer EM Parry sets it in a surreal world of picture frames against a dark slash curtain and halfway through scatters the stage with a bizarre random collection of props from all eras including a bathtub, a mannequin, pot stand, a plastic Alsatian, a candelabra, and a statuette as called for in the script. This was added to at the interval with a black bucket which did not look out of place to catch the drips from the roof! They sorted the sound problems at the interval too which had created crackling and popping interference whenever the cast spoke into the unnecessary hand mikes which added nothing to the clarity of narrative.
The production was enthusiastically welcomed by the first-night audience and its underlying messages are powerful and relevant but the style and language of the show will not appeal to a mainstream audience and as a new venue keen to establish itself as serving the whole of the local community in an assessable and appealing way it is to be hoped that future productions have the spelling binding quality of Ralph Fiennes, the clarity and simplicity of the Watermill production of Dorian, the innovation and relevance of the Barn stream of the title or even allow the wit and humour of Wilde’s own brilliant words to shine through.Review by Nick Wayne
Rating: ★★
Seat: Stalls, Row B | Price of Ticket: £23
