Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray

I caught this with my girlfriend last night, and I have to say we were shocked. This was genuinely one of the worst things I have ever seen at the Festival, in 14 years of seeing all manner of events from the sublime to the ridiculous.

It was extremely literal, the dancing narrative was unintentionally hilarious (the only enjoyable aspect), if a secondary school drama club had pulled this together they could still have felt fairly sheepish about it. The dancing was not even particularly good. The less said about the music the better, but in fairness it matched the dreadful visual aesthetic. Honestly, I'm baffled - perhaps the awfulness was all part of the central message of Wilde's story, but it seemed extremely self-defeating.

in fairness, we left after 20 minutes, so maybe it picked up. I doubt it.

We went to the evening show on Saturday 23, and were captivated. The staging was incredible and the choreography amazing. I think Wilde would have approved of this production - it was dark, creative and sexy. I loved the revolving stage-sets and the dancing was, I think, tremendous. I've never seen pas de deux like this before!

Hugely enjoyable evening and a brilliant re-telling of Dorian Gray.

Bourne's translation of Dorian Gray to the stage is absolutely brilliant. Some of the critical comments posted here and elsewhere seem to reflect a complete ignorance of the Wilde novel. In the novel, Gray remains outwardly beautiful -- a complete deception -- while the truth of his moral disintegration is revealed in the changes to his portait. Bourne's introduction of the doppelganger as a way of illustrating the permanence of Gray's external beauty while Gray internally disintegrates into depravity is a stroke of genius. Bourne's Dorian Gray is captivating, and the best thing he has done since Swan Lake. Go see it, more than once -- you will appreciate it more after a second viewing.