There’s a bar at the downstage end of the performance space; audience members can belly up before the show and buy a drink, picking either the red cocktail or the blue—a reference, perhaps, to the red and blue pills Morpheus offers Neo in The Matrix. Remember? “You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
This clever, visually striking House Theatre version updates Wilde’s tale to a rarified corner of the present. Collette Pollard’s environmental scenic design drops us into a Warholian world where chic, moneyed, mostly smug young aesthetes order drinks with names like Double Penetration and Sloppy Seconds while dancing among opalescent pillars that continually change color. Dorian materializes out of nowhere (and for no apparent reason), literally squirming in his timidity. His supernal hotness quickly attracts attention, however, and a crowd forms around him, the core of which consists of struggling gay painter Basil, art-scene doyenne Gladys, nerdy tagalong Alan, erotic performance artist Sybil, and fey critic Harry (who explains that he judges art because he hasn’t a “glimmer” of talent when it comes to making it). Soon Dorian has emerged from his shell far enough to have serial affairs with Sybil and Basil.
Through 5/18: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 7 PM Chopin Theatre 1543 W. Division 773-769-3832thehousetheatre.com $20-$39
