Trafalgar Studios
London SW1

Over 125 years since Oscar Wilde published his only novel, his grandson Merlin Holland has adapted this classic for the stage.

Along with director Peter Craze, he's attempted to bring this ingenious, witty and thrilling drama to life.

In it, a wild-eyed Guy Warren-Thomas — more like a cheeky schoolboy than the devil incarnate — is cast as the impressionable Dorian Gray who, after having his portrait painted, sells his soul to the devil.

He desires to stay as young and handsome as the canvas wishing that the new portrait grow old and decrepit instead.

After meeting the decadent and hedonistic Lord Henry, a pseudo-philosophical discussion around morality, beauty and monstrosity ensues. The result is that Gray leads a life of crime and notoriety — causing misery and even murder along the way — but managing to keep his youthful looks.

Yet the beautiful portrait becomes ever more ravaged as Gray descends into a pit of debauched excess and murder.

There have been a number of attempts to bring Wilde's supernatural drama to life and very few have been successful. That is unfortunately the case here.

Despite the efforts of an enthusiastic cast and wonderfully garish lighting, this adaptation fails to live up to the novel’s reputation as a riveting tale of scandal and sin. It's main problem is the total lack of imagination, reflected in a flat production that does little to add anything new to the original text.

It's not a total disaster — the staging is efficient, the four actors easily inhabit the small but compact space and Anette Black’s huge array of costumes are wonderful.

But not even these pluses or John Gorick’s perfectly immoral Lord Henry manages to save what is, at best, an average production.

Runs until February 13, box office: trafalgar-studios.co.uk