Le mardi 29 novembre 2016, les élèves de 1L ont assisté à la représentation de la pièce Le Portrait de Dorian Gray, adaptée du roman d’Oscar Wilde, à la Comédie des Champs-Elysées à Paris. Une élève raconte ici son expérience, en anglais.
Review of The Picture of Dorian Gray
First of all, let me introduce The Portrait of Dorian Gray by the popular writer of the 19th century, Oscar Wilde. This novel is a philosophical novel which became the object of many criticisms and adaptations for example 3 movies, based on the novel. The story is specifically about four characters who are Lord Henry (Harry), a noble with a particular vision of life, Basil who is an artist with moral, Sybil Vane an actress and finally, Dorian Gray who is the main character and famous for his breathtaking and unreal beauty.
The story starts when Basil, who saw Dorian, started to be so amazed by his beauty that he developed an obsession towards him and decided to paint him. After that, when Dorian saw his portrait, he felt jealousy and wished to stay as perfect as the portrait forever: the portrait will get older and uglier but he will not. But after Dorian felt the freedom of having eternal youth he started to be sick of it and tried to find a way to kill the portrait.
After seeing the play The Picture of Dorian Gray, I was amazed as well. I'll start by saying that the decorations and costumes which the actors were wearing were so faithful to the original novel because they were wearing beautiful and wonderful aristocratic clothes from the era of the novel. I was so amazed that my soul left my body and flew back to the 19th century. I found it so real, that I could not help but stare at the costumes during the whole play. I really love that era so I admit that I liked it even more.
Even tho there were some differences with the novel, such as Lord Henry being here when Dorian and Sybil argue or the portrait which was never shown, it made me feel as if I were in another world. But for me, the best thing was definitely Thomas Le Douarec’s interpretation of Lord Henry. I can't find words to describe it, he was just incredible and acted so well, I was totally fond of his character and of how he was acting. Plus, how the playwright did the staging helped people concentrate on the play and remain interested. The mood was wonderful and magical, the actress who played Sybil Vane was a really good singer, even the lights and 19th-century decorations were fascinating and prodigious.
That's why I really recommend seeing that play over and over again with all my heart, even if that's just for the actors and because Dorian and Henry acted in a different way. The play was more detailed than the novel and the playwright had his own singular way to do the staging and to direct the acting, which was totally awesome.
I’m sure you won't be disappointed!
Sephora Lecomte