REVIEW: Blackbird challenges gender roles in all-female 'Dorian Gray'

Having read The Picture of Dorian Gray in college (mumble mumble) years ago, I eagerly anticipated the Blackbird Theatre's all-female production, with a script adapted from Oscar Wilde's deliciously dark novel. How would Wilde's exploration of beauty, art and morality, his biting satire and boundless enthusiasm for circuitous dialogue, play out on stage? What unique interpretations would female performers bring to these sexually charged, male roles?

On all counts, Blackbird presents the very best of Wilde's original work. Founder and artistic director Barton Bund and Wa-Louisa Hubbard (who also directs) have pared the full-length novel down with almost surgical precision. The most relevant conversations are compacted in two tightly-written acts and laced together with strolling narrators, who interact briefly on stage. While the essence of the story is conveyed, the end of the story has been altered; I will leave you to see and judge it for yourself.

(As a side note, what set designer Isaac Ellis did with a rather plain and limited space - in a building that also houses a day care center - is nothing short of a miracle. And whoever painted the series of portraits that served as set pieces deserves a medal; they added greatly to the quality of the production.)

While the script presents an opportunity, Blackbird's five-player cast fulfills its potential. Mori Richner simply steals the show with her rakish portrayal of Wilde's brilliant and charming provocateur, Lord Henry Wotton, whose theories and philosophies of art, beauty and women facilitate Dorian Gray's downfall. While her character delivers some of the play's best lines, Richner also handles the role with what I can only describe as a kind of simmering masculinity. Also the Theatre's executive director, Richner makes her Blackbird stage debut in this role. She has appeared at the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre and the Children's Theatre Network.

Eva Rosenwald does great justice to the role of portrait artist Basil Hallward, whose relationship with Dorian Gray becomes an oddly tangled web of admiration, perfection and passion. Rosenwald aptly conveys Basil's conflicting emotions and descent into a kind of romantic madness that comes to a most tragic and gruesome end. A veteran on the local theatre scene, Rosenwald has undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan, and is a long-time member of their CRLT Players, who perform sketches and vignettes designed to engage administrators and educators in conversations that touch on issues of pedagogy, diversity and inclusion.

Alysia Kolascz, a former apprentice at Performance Network Theatre, takes on the play's most challenging role, that of Dorian Gray himself. Her endearing portrayal left me feeling only compassion for this boy whose youthful exuberance barely allows him to sit still for a portrait in the play's opening moments. Kolascz's restraint is evident; Dorian could easily have become a caricature. She gives him a heart, a soul and a palpable recognition of the horror unfolding before his eyes.

Rounding out the cast, Diviin Huff, another Performance Network apprentice, and Jamie Weeder, a Blackbird regular this season, both served ably as narrators, as well as in supporting roles. Weeder conveyed surprisingly honest emotion as Sybil Vane, the actress who captures the heart of Dorian Gray; Huff's best moments came across in the person of Sybil's tortured brother James.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, in its original form, startled and horrified Victorian-era readers with its hedonistic themes and revolutionary ideas about art, beauty and morality. Wilde welcomed critiques of his work, noting in the novel's preface, “Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.” And Blackbird Theatre's adaptation makes this 19th century classic new, complex and vital once more.

--Joni Hubred-Golden

The Picture of Dorian Gray
Adapted by Barton Bund & Wa-Louisa Hubbard
From the novel by Oscar Wilde

Directed by Wa-Louise Hubbard
Stage Manager Scott Longpre
Asst. Stage Manager Natalie Reitz
Costume Designer Sara Eicher
Lighting Design Tiff Crutchfield
Set Design Isaac Elis
Produced by Barton Bund & Dana Sutton

The Blackbird Theatre
Regular Performances April 24-May 9, Friday & Saturday at 8, Sundays at 2
Tickets $20, $15, and $10. For more information, please call 734-332-3848.