Driving Wilde
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Theatre of NOTE
Through September 21
In The Picture of Dorian Grey, Oscar Wilde’s title character makes a Faustian pact to preserve his beauty at the price of his soul, transitioning, in the course of the narrative, from a naïve, guilt-free youth to a cruel and vicious narcissist. The book speaks to the vanity of vanity itself, the folly of prizing superficial appearances over stolid virtues like honesty and kindness.
Jacqueline Wright’s satiric Driving Wilde transposes elements of the story to a contemporary setting with mixed results. Directed by Bart DeLorenzo at Theatre of NOTE, Wright’s re-imagined tale comes embedded with lacerating humor and is bolstered by two adept comedic performances. The production also features video designer Ben Rock’s colorful backdrops, eye-catching visuals that transport us to various locales as the story demands.
But at 95 rambling minutes without intermission, the show feels overextended. Unlike Wilde’s novelette, where Dorian is pure and uncorrupted at the start, this Dorian (Michael Kodi Farrow) comes across from the beginning as sly and manipulative. His progression from innocence to corruption — fundamental to Wilde’s original and to any adaptation, however radically variant — plays as less shocking, less dramatic, and detracts from the emotional investment we might otherwise have had in the story’s outcome.
The show opens with Dorian and a few friends joyriding up Mulholland Drive, with Dorian at the wheel. Distracted by the specter of Wilde in prison garb, he crashes the car. When he wakes in the hospital, he’s lost most of his memory, so must build relationships anew. He meets Basil (Carl J. Johnson), a practicing Catholic who’s immediately smitten with Dorian and sets to work painting him; and Basil’s friend Henry (David Wilcox), who is smug and snarky in contrast to the puppyish portraitist Basil, who might as well be wearing a neon sign that reads, ”Stomp on me, please.”
It’s worth sitting through the show’s less interesting sequences to relish the comic antics of these two veteran performers, who are frequently on stage. One of the play’s highlights is a picnic scene where Dorian seductively bites into a strawberry while the two elder men look on, practically swooning with desire. Besides their main roles, Johnson and Wilcox don wigs and other costume paraphernalia to play other characters — for example, Johnson transforms himself into a buxom flirtatious waitress at Hooters, while Wilcox appears as buck-toothed Chuck, the only former school pal Dorian connects with.
Dorian, who swings both ways, falls for a homeless surfer gal named Moon (Raven Moran), but breaks her heart after the magic of moonlight fades. He also has a fling with Henry’s dominatrix wife Rose (Moran). Neither of these absurdist plot elements intrigues terribly much, partly because they are over-elaborated, but also because the two performers involved lack the larger-than-life presence, consummate skill and lunatic edge to master them.
Besides the videography, the production is enriched by Martin Carillo’s sound and Brandon Baruch’s lighting. A frenzied scene in a nightclub showcases the droll talent of Michael Sturgis as an anonymous patron, who stands in for every desperate clubber seeking whatever clubbers seek as they mindlessly twitch and jerk to the music. Finally, costume designer Ann Closs-Farley is spot-on with her choices, all of which underscore each character’s essence, be it frumpy or carping or cavalier.
Theatre of NOTE, 1517 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through Sep. 21. www.theatreofnote.com or (subject to availability) (323) 856-8611. Running time: approximately 95 minutes with no intermission.
