This 'BBC Play of the Month' is my first viewing of what appears to be a great 2-DVD set: The Oscar Wilde Collection from BBC TV. It also makes an ideal set of BBC plays to collect right along with the George Bernard Shaw Collection from the same series of productions. The other three Oscar Wilde plays in this set include: The Importance of Being Ernest, The Ideal Husband, and Lady Windermere's Fan. Each play runs around 90 minutes, and the set also includes a biography of Wilde.
The Picture of Dorian Gray was really Wilde's only successful novel, but this play, adapted from the novel by John Osborne, is every bit as powerful (if not as complete) as any movie. The fact that it IS a play, gives the viewer a better insight into the dialogue of the characters as well as a liberal dose of Wilde's biting epigrams, and wit.
In the 1945 movie based on the same novel, Greoge Sanders (as Lord Henry Wotton) becomes Dorian Gray's friend and then (more or less) narrates the story about the picture.
In the play described here, Sir John Gielgud--in the George Sanders movie role as Wotton--becomes closer to the other two main characters, Dorian Gray (Peter Firth) and his portrait artist, Basil Hallward (Jeremy Brett). Here, Wotton is a dead ringer for the person that we always hear about whenever Oscar Wilde is described.
This play is very generous in relaying the homoerotic relationship among these three characters, with Dorian Gray being the fulcrum. Hallward paints his lifetime masterpiece in his portrait of Dorian Gray. Wotton desires to own it, but Hallward will not sell it to anyone; he will only give to its rightful owner, Dorian Gray.
When Wotton and Hallward meet, Wotton pontificates about the difference between the classes, the needs of the urban versus the rural folk, the manners of the day, the importance of art, and the relationship between the flesh and the soul (hedonism).
When Wotton meets Gray, he talks about the genius of youth and the evilness of age. He talks about the ideal of 'dissecting every virtue and every sin from the past.' When Gray is given the picture from Hallward, he says, 'This picture will always remain young. It will never be older than this particular day in June. If only it would grow old instead of me, I would give my soul for that...
Then later Gray says to Hallward-- 'I'm jealous of the portrait..every moment it takes something from me..Why did you paint it, so that one day I will be mocked by it?'
After Gray takes possession of the portrait, he becomes obsessed with it. He first shrouds it, then later moves it up to his attic. As time passes and Dorian Gray slips into noticeable depravity as the people around him grow older while he remains young. The secret of his youthful appearance lies in the portrait itself.
If this play presents a Gothic tale of the philosophical interplay between pure aesthetics (represented by Basil Hallward) versus pure hedonism (represented by Lord Wotton), it also presents the narcissism of Gary's need to be eternally young. The 'victim' of this strange blend of ideals is its object, Dorian Gray.
All of the subplots of the novel are presented in the play. But, the three central characters stand out in greater relief here. While there are female characters in his play, such as Grays' ill-fated lover, Sibyl Vane (Judi Bowker), they only seem to be plot-moving props here. For any really love, passion, or jealousy, one need look no further than the male characters.
This 1976 play shows clearly that the British were well ahead of the Americans in openly bringing 'the love that dare not speak its name' out of the closet.
The Picture of Dorian Gray was really Wilde's only successful novel, but this play, adapted from the novel by John Osborne, is every bit as powerful (if not as complete) as any movie. The fact that it IS a play, gives the viewer a better insight into the dialogue of the characters as well as a liberal dose of Wilde's biting epigrams, and wit.
In the 1945 movie based on the same novel, Greoge Sanders (as Lord Henry Wotton) becomes Dorian Gray's friend and then (more or less) narrates the story about the picture.
In the play described here, Sir John Gielgud--in the George Sanders movie role as Wotton--becomes closer to the other two main characters, Dorian Gray (Peter Firth) and his portrait artist, Basil Hallward (Jeremy Brett). Here, Wotton is a dead ringer for the person that we always hear about whenever Oscar Wilde is described.
This play is very generous in relaying the homoerotic relationship among these three characters, with Dorian Gray being the fulcrum. Hallward paints his lifetime masterpiece in his portrait of Dorian Gray. Wotton desires to own it, but Hallward will not sell it to anyone; he will only give to its rightful owner, Dorian Gray.
When Wotton and Hallward meet, Wotton pontificates about the difference between the classes, the needs of the urban versus the rural folk, the manners of the day, the importance of art, and the relationship between the flesh and the soul (hedonism).
When Wotton meets Gray, he talks about the genius of youth and the evilness of age. He talks about the ideal of 'dissecting every virtue and every sin from the past.' When Gray is given the picture from Hallward, he says, 'This picture will always remain young. It will never be older than this particular day in June. If only it would grow old instead of me, I would give my soul for that...
Then later Gray says to Hallward-- 'I'm jealous of the portrait..every moment it takes something from me..Why did you paint it, so that one day I will be mocked by it?'
After Gray takes possession of the portrait, he becomes obsessed with it. He first shrouds it, then later moves it up to his attic. As time passes and Dorian Gray slips into noticeable depravity as the people around him grow older while he remains young. The secret of his youthful appearance lies in the portrait itself.
If this play presents a Gothic tale of the philosophical interplay between pure aesthetics (represented by Basil Hallward) versus pure hedonism (represented by Lord Wotton), it also presents the narcissism of Gary's need to be eternally young. The 'victim' of this strange blend of ideals is its object, Dorian Gray.
All of the subplots of the novel are presented in the play. But, the three central characters stand out in greater relief here. While there are female characters in his play, such as Grays' ill-fated lover, Sibyl Vane (Judi Bowker), they only seem to be plot-moving props here. For any really love, passion, or jealousy, one need look no further than the male characters.
This 1976 play shows clearly that the British were well ahead of the Americans in openly bringing 'the love that dare not speak its name' out of the closet.