The Melville Theatre in Abergavenny is hosting top drama next Friday 15 February with the European Arts Company production of  a thrilling adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’.

This major tour to 50 venues across the UK arrives fresh from a highly successful tour of Italy, where the company performed at 150 theatres and to over 100,000 people.  

Featuring a distinguished cast familiar from stage and screen including Richard Latham (Casualty, Shackleton) and Mario Vernazza (Family Affairs, The Da Vinci Code), this is a highly entertaining romp through one of the world’s great classics. 

It has been hailed as a fast paced, witty and engaging production which takes the audience by storm…a surreal performance, witty and hilarious, full of energy talent and creativity.

The Picture of Dorian Gray was Oscar Wilde’s only published novel and tells the story of a beautiful young man who makes a devilish bargain with his portrait: 

‘If it were I who was to be always young and the picture that was to grow old.  For that, I would give everything!  I would give my soul for that.’

Adapted by Director Jonathan Kemp, the show is highly physical and five  versatile actors tell the wicked, witty story of Dorian Gray using only the objects found within an artist’s studio.  Therefore picture frames, plinths, paint pots, brushes, dust sheets, stepladders, trestles and little else are used to create the physical world of Victorian London with great ingenuity and a lot of fun.

“European Arts Company provides sheer entertainment but also an excellent opportunity for seeing high-quality live theatre”.  International Herald Tribune

The show is sponsored by Arts Council of Wales ‘Night Out’ scheme.   European Arts is a national and international touring theatre company based in Kent who last brought Harold Pinter’s A Slight Ache and The Lover to the Melville Theatre.
ends

For more information on the company and tour, please contact John O’Connor 01634 821137 or visit www.europeanarts.co.uk.