We meet Samuel Orange, Greenwich resident and creator of a theatrical adaption of A Picture of Dorian Gray, transporting the audience into the debauched upper echelons of Victorian society
BY BEN WEST
The Alchemic Order’s acclaimed production of The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Restoration returns to the elegant Greenwich townhouse in which it was originally staged, a secret location in Greenwich.
Opening on April 24 2018, 127 years to the day since the original publication of Oscar Wilde’s only novel, the audience enter a Victorian salon where guests witness the story unfold around them during a unique and unforgettable evening of art and intrigue.
“From the beginning The Picture of Dorian Gray has been received with shock, delight, fascination, consternation and controversy,” says the production’s creator, Samuel Orange. “It ultimately played a part in Wilde’s magnificent martyrdom, resulting in his downfall at the hand of the British establishment, during his infamous trials.
“This novel is Wilde’s testament. His masterpiece. My production is an attempt to recreate his ideas in another medium, from the written word to the ritual of theatre. Not an easy feat, as the philosophical enquiries inherent in the work are complex and perplexing, especially for the theatrical medium. That is why, as the most successful dramatist of his era, Wilde chose to write this story as a novel and not a play; it was impossible to express these ideas in the theatrical forms of his time. Whilst working on this adaptation I have been compelled to redress some of the misunderstandings with the story and to manifest elements in the work hitherto unexcavated. This is why the project is called ‘a restoration.’”
Samuel considers The Picture of Dorian Gray one of the most important works of western literature, and its reappraisal of the metaphysical premise of the novel has created a new theatrical experience. The combination of promenade theatre and ‘Dorian Gray’s private home’ certainly promises to provide quite a special experience.
I ask Samuel what drew him to dramatising this work over others.
“Originally, I fell in love with the novel when I was given it as a gift for my 17th birthday,” he says. “It never left me. It became part of me. The idea to adapt it came much later and originated from my decision to abandon conventional industrial working routines and practises.”
Now in its fourth year, the new, revitalised production stands as the eponymous portrait, taking on a life of its own. The audience is invited to be guests at the irresistible infamous soirée, in the aristocratic parlours inhabited by the luxurious, languid and licentious world of Wilde and his characters.
“When I first began this journey I had no idea how alive this story is; truly alive. As the apotheosis of Wilde’s genius, Dorian Gray does not cease to inspire, constantly provoking me to question, striving to perfect its multi-layered nuances, manifest its radicalism and to transform the novel into this alchemic experience. The production has grown with each investigation, each experiment and on every evening to date. I have become as obsessed with this project as Dorian Gray is obsessed with his portrait. This season, with the new cast, new collaborators and new energies, is set to be something of a new dawn.”
Samuel was raised by a single mother in a family of six brothers on a council estate in Manchester. One of his brothers is Jason Orange from boy band Take That. Jason has seen the production, and wholeheartedly approves.
“God only knows how my mother coped,” he says. “I was the first one to be able to go on to college. After that I trained as an actor and director at The School of the Science of Acting under the founder Sam Kogan, then later as a contemporary dancer and choreographer at TrinityLaban. I have worked with and been profoundly influenced by The Grotowski Institute, of Poland. Art as pure entertainment has never interested me so much. Neither does the contemporary art scene, with its intellectual ostentations and spiritual bankruptcies. When I graduated, I was dismayed at certain factors in these industries, so I decided to follow my own path.”
The house where the play is set is Georgian, built in 1773.
“The house is remarkable in many ways, not least in that it is alive. It has a life of it’s own. This is why it is cast as the portrait in the production of itself. This is one of the main themes in the novel; how a work of art takes on a life of its own and breaks new ground through time and space, trans-historically.”
How does it feel letting strangers into your home? Intrusive ever?
“A stranger is a friend one has yet to meet,” he says. “Inviting guests into my home to offer them something from the soul is one of the most beautiful experiences a person could ever have. I am sold. I realise how unusual it is, but for me it has felt natural. On the surface, it might look to some like an odd thing to do, an inconvenience, a practical nightmare even. Yet underneath the surface, the reality is that this process involves the genesis, symbiosis and metamorphosis of who I am and of who they are. On levels that one could take a lifetime to elaborate upon. It involves presences, energies, temporal and spatial re-appropriations, it gives uncanny aura to people and things; ideal for the story. Unwittingly, I have created a post-industrial cottage industry, which I’ve become rather fond of, in the age of supranational theatrical corporatism.”
Are there advantages staging it this way rather than in a conventional theatre?
“The staging is my home. The house is the portrait. The actors are the characters. The work is rarely, if at all, adapted in a successful manner into any medium. There are reasons for this, some of which are related to its complexities. I could not bare the thought of staging it in a proscenium arch theatre. If Wilde wanted that, he would have done it. What Wilde is discussing in the novel is not simply a spoilt brat misbehaving and three queens squabbling over a painting. This is Wilde’s testimonial as Artist, Classicist, Philosopher, Christian, Aesthetician, Alchemist and Revolutionary. Informed by both his vast scope of history, his spiritual destiny and his erudition of, literally, heroic proportions.
“The central relationship in the story, the relationship between Dorian Gray and his portrait, is a universal enactment of the relationship between performer and observer, public and private personae, the physical and metaphysical, action and time, art and reality, the duality of body and soul. Where else better to stage it than in one’s own home? Dorian moves through the ages. He is the apotheosis of the human soul made into the ritual scapegoat, which he defies. He is an icon, if ever one existed. Dorian Gray has influenced the history of western art and personality since his creation. In fact, Wilde invented the name especially for him. Could we think of a better gentleman caller?”
The audience typically consists of around 25 each evening. The relatively small number allows for an intimate relationship that would be impossible at a big theatre. Conversely, over the years, Samuel has collaborated with quite a number of cast and crew.
“I have collaborated with some remarkable individuals on this project,” he says. “Possibly too many to mention and too complex to elaborate upon the nature of their work. Advisors, alchemists, astrologers, aitches, channelers, magicians, healers, yogi’s, not to mention academics, architects, designers, musicians, dancers, stage managers, oh, and of course, actors! I play Lord Henry Wotton, although for a limited period this time; I would like to re-cast him. I have worked with the same supporting cast for the previous three seasons, with a new Dorian Gray each time. This year I am re-casting the show in its entirety, for new energies and vitality.”
This article appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of Black + Green Magazine