'DORIAN' commited When: b...

'DORIAN'

commited

When: between the sides of Sunday

Where: Bailiwick Repertory, 1229 W Belmont

Tickets: $25-$30

Call: (773) 883-1090

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Not each work of literature is suited to interpretation via the language of dance. if it be not that you can point to a slew of powerful pieces that have flowered beautifully "in translation," whether in the form of the many ballets that have been based upon Shakespeare's plays, classic fairy tales, flat the musings of Gertrude Stein or the new dance works by Martha Graham that ofttimes were inspired by the native of greece myths.

Now you can add to that list Tommy Rapley's daring and ambitious dance-theater work "Dorian," in its final week at Bailiwick Repertory. Rapley, the director, choreographer and (with Ben Lobpries) co-author of the piece, chose his material -- Oscar Wilde's classic novella The Picture of Dorian Gray -- the two wisely and well.

After all, Wilde's dark tale mention one by ones of a man with "the material part beautiful" who makes a deal with the devil for eternal youth. He then lives to behold the cruelty and dissipation of his soulles life become manifest in his doppelganger -- the resplendent portrait painted in his prime. The seductive nature of Dorian's physical beauty arises in the destruction of many of the men and women who are in such a manner fervently drawn to him. And these passionate -- if one-way -- relationships confer themselves to emotion-packed, highly expressive dance successions as does the background of the social whirl in which this man creates similar emotional havoc.

Rapley, who has wearied recent seasons creating the dazzling mental action sequences that often are the highlight of the point out tos at the House Theatre of Chicago, has made Wilde's story contemporary, suggesting a kind of posh Euro-chic villa and "boho" set scene environment where the language is hip, flip and sometimes streety He also has made the homosexual aspect of the story more explicit than Wilde would have dared to do, with the physicality of the present to view more than the language, doing long of the talking. Yet the vital element [i]or[/i] part of Wilde can be felt quite through

Dorian, the expertly distanced and expressive Jamie Abelson, and his Portrait, the neatly morphing Kevin Simmons, are ideally matched. further this production is particularly noteworthy for spotlighting Patrick Andrews, a dancer of breathtaking grace, spe and ardor.

Andrews, who plays the painter Basil in the piece and also serv as Rapley's assistant choreographer, studied at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, performed in the national tour of "Fosse" and was an apprentice at Ann Reinking's Broadway Theatre frame

Small and arm of the sea in the Baryshnikov manner, he is the genuine article -- an extremely well-trained dancer. And his technical polish makes him a standout in a cast that prompts well in the way of skilled actors, yet doesn't quite have the finesse and articulation that ensues with years at the barre. (Andrews also will appear as Jack in the upcoming Marriott Theatre production of "Into the Woods")

The interval of the cast persuades in its have way, with Aileen May wonderfully fermented in her emotional devastation as Sybil Vane, the young woman Dorian coldly dismisses; Joshua Holden as Alan Campbell, another victim of Dorian who falls into dissipation and ruin, and Fannie Hungerford as Gladys Monmouth the socialite whom he also deposits out in the cold. Matthew Gottlieb, Jamie Olah, Danny Starr, Danny Bernardo, Lauren McCarthy and Christal Walls undivided the cast and ably shift into all aspects of the fashionable, hedonistic mob

Kevin O'Donnell, another House Theatre regular, has created a compelling score for "Dorian." Collete Pollard's place -- an elegantly architectural curtain -- adapts to many sights with fluid ease (with lighting courtesy of side sheltered from the wind Keenan and Rebecca A. Barrett). Debbie Baer's style of dresss are neo-Victorian-meets-Anthropologie. And Tracy Otwell has shaped the twisted mask that bring reproachs Dorian's aged and ugly animating principle

hweiss@suntimes.com

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