Sarah Snook Tackles 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Sarah Snook Tackles 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'"

Podcast Information:

• Title: All Of It
• Host: Alison Stewart
• Episode: Sarah Snook Tackles 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'
• Release Date: June 6, 2025
• Description: ALL OF IT is a show about culture and its consumers, aiming to engage thinkers, doers, makers, and creators in discussions about the what and why of their work.

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Introduction to the Episode

In this episode of All Of It, host Alison Stewart delves into the intricate world of Broadway's latest sensation, featuring actress Sarah Snook. The episode centers around Sarah's portrayal of Dorian Gray in the highly acclaimed one-woman show, a modern adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic tale.

Overview of the Play and Sarah Snook’s Role

Alison Stewart introduces listeners to the ambitious production where Sarah Snook embodies 26 different characters in the Broadway play "The Picture of Dorian Gray". The production is lauded for its innovative use of technology, including five cameras, large and small screens, diorama-shaped sets, and live video editing, all orchestrated under the direction of Kip Williams. The play has garnered six Tony nominations, including a Best Actress nod for Sarah Snook, who also received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performance. The narrative reimagines Oscar Wilde's tale, exploring themes of youth, beauty, and moral decay, culminating in Dorian Gray's descent into madness.

Interview Highlights with Sarah Snook

Taking on the Role Amidst Personal Milestones ([02:53] - [03:08])

Alison begins by asking Sarah whether she intended to take a break after her role in the acclaimed TV show "Succession" or if she was actively seeking her next project.

Sarah Snook responds:

"Yeah, definitely just looking to take a break... It's a dream come true really."
[02:53]

She expresses surprise and joy at landing the role, highlighting how unexpected yet fulfilling the opportunity has been.

Meeting Kip Williams and Collaborative Beginnings ([03:08] - [03:53])

Alison inquires about Sarah's first encounter with director Kip Williams, who had previously acknowledged her talent during her drama school days.

Sarah Snook shares:

"He was the artistic director of Sydney Theatre Company when I first did a show there called St. Joan in 2018... we always since then wanted to work together."
[03:25]

This long-awaited collaboration underscores the synergy between actress and director, setting the stage for the play's success.

Balancing Motherhood and a Demanding Role ([03:53] - [05:26])

Discussing the complexities of performing 26 roles while being six months postpartum, Sarah reflects on the disciplined approach required.

Sarah Snook explains:

"There was like a particular kind of choreography to this piece that was already set that I had to work within... It was very structured in that way."
[05:47]

She highlights the structured environment that allowed her to thrive creatively despite personal challenges.

Creative Process and Choreography ([05:26] - [07:28])

Alison likens the play's structured approach to playing music, where understanding the foundational elements is crucial before improvisation.

Sarah Snook compares:

"It’s very similar to jazz in that way... I can jazz it up. I can put a little bit more emphasis on this part of the sentence..."
[07:16]

This analogy illustrates how Sarah navigates the balance between adhering to the play's framework and injecting personal creativity into her performance.

Performing with Multiple Versions of Herself ([07:28] - [09:03])

The conversation shifts to the technical aspects of Sarah performing alongside herself using screens and camera work.

Sarah Snook remarks:

"I have to find new ways to find that actor on stage, which is me... I have to find new ways to receive what they are saying."
[07:28]

She emphasizes the importance of imagination and adaptability in creating a seamless and engaging performance.

Acknowledging the Behind-the-Scenes Team ([09:03] - [08:29])

When asked about the camera operators, Sarah gives heartfelt appreciation to the crew who play pivotal roles in the show's dynamics.

Sarah Snook states:

"They are so integral and necessary to the performance of this show... it is an ensemble performance with the camera crew cast being both protagonists as well as antagonists."
[08:00]

This acknowledgment highlights the collaborative nature of the production, where every team member contributes to the storytelling.

Character Development and Thematic Exploration ([10:10] - [14:18])

Alison probes into the importance of the initial scenes and character introductions, and how these set the tone for the entire play.

Sarah Snook elaborates:

"Oscar Wilde once said that the Portrait of Dorian Gray was somewhat not autobiographical, but there were essences of him in there."
[10:30]

The discussion delves into how the characters embody different facets of Dorian Gray's persona and the societal implications of his actions.

When exploring the evolution of the portrait, Sarah offers:

"I think it's all. I think it does show him aging and shows him aging faster... the decrepitude of his spirit and soul."
[14:18]

This insight underscores the play's focus on the psychological and moral deterioration mirrored by the portrait.

Motivation and Personal Insights ([14:51] - [15:01])

Alison asks about Sarah's personal strategies for maintaining motivation during performances.

Sarah Snook shares wisdom from her husband:

"There is one person in the audience... They are there for wanting you to show them a great show and just that one person... that's the person to do it for."
[15:01]

This perspective highlights the dedication and emotional investment Sarah brings to her role.

Conclusion of the Interview

Alison wraps up the interview by reiterating Sarah Snook's Tony nomination and the extended run of the play through June 29th. She teases the next segment, which explores another Tony-nominated play in a high school setting in Georgia.

Alison Stewart concludes:

"This is your last month to catch Sarah in this incredible performance... Stay with us."
[15:36]

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Key Takeaways

• Innovation in Theater: The production's use of technology and live editing marks a significant evolution in stage performances, blending traditional acting with modern multimedia elements.

• Acting Versatility: Sarah Snook’s ability to portray 26 characters showcases her exceptional range and dedication, making the play a standout in contemporary theater.

• Thematic Depth: The adaptation explores profound themes of youth, beauty, morality, and the consequences of one's actions, reflecting both Wilde's original intent and modern societal concerns.

• Collaborative Effort: The success of the play is a testament to the seamless collaboration between Sarah, director Kip Williams, and the entire production crew, highlighting the importance of teamwork in creative endeavors.

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For those interested in experiencing this groundbreaking production, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is currently running on Broadway and will continue until June 29th. Don't miss the opportunity to witness Sarah Snook's award-winning performance.

Transcript

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[Alison Stewart]

You'Re listening to all of it on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Sarah Snook plays 26 characters in the Broadway play the the Picture of Dorian Gray. And that's not the only complicated factor in the execution of the nearly two hour, 60,000 word play. There are five camera folks, huge screens, small screens, diorama shaped sets, trips through the back of the stage, pre recorded pieces, video wizardry, and some fine acting from Sarah. All of this has earned the show six Tony nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Sarah Snook. She also took home the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a play conceived of by Kip Williams. The story is of a postmodern take on Oscar Wilde's tale of a beautiful young man, Dorian, who makes a wish to retain his youth while a portrait of him ages in the attic. Not just with time, but with each act of depravity, it's enough to make Dorian go insane. Spoiler alert, he does. The show took the West End by storm and it opened on Broadway in March to excellent reviews. The show has now been extended through June 29th. So this is your last month to catch Sarah in this incredible performance. I began my conversation with actor Sarah Snook by asking her whether she wanted to take a break after wrapping the acclaimed TV show succession or whether she was looking for her next part.

[Sarah Snook]

Yeah, definitely just looking to take a break, I think, and did not suspect that this could possibly be my next gig playing 26 roles on on West End and then, you know, to hope, fingers crossed, to be able to transfer to Broadway as well. It's a dream come true really.

[Alison Stewart]

Kip Williams, the director and the adapter behind this production of Dorian Gray, said he heard about you while you were in school. Heard there was this great red headed actor who he should work with at some point. When did you first hear of or meet Kip Williams?

[Sarah Snook]

Well, he was the artistic director of Sydney Theatre Company when I first did a show there called St. Joan in 2018. I was part of his first season that he scheduled. And so we properly kind of, I guess properly crossed paths then, but we knew of each other at drama school and, and he did the directing stream and I did the acting stream and we'd always since then wanted to work together.

[Alison Stewart]

What about this seemed cool to you to do given that you just given birth to your, your child?

[Sarah Snook]

You could even, I mean 26, 26 roles? You mean kidding me? It's like doing 26 different characters and, and the make like indulging in the make believe of the world of, of that kibitz created through the Dorian Gray that, you know, the novel that Oscar wrote is such an incredible, deeply rich novel with so many brilliant ideas inside. To be able to play inside that and play all of the characters is such a, such a gift.

[Alison Stewart]

When you first read Oscar Wilde's work, you said that you talked to Kip about it for two or three hours. What stood out about that story for you?

[Sarah Snook]

I think just the relevance really. Where we are now is where Oscar of predicted we might be like back in Victorian times. You know, the book is, is over 100 years old. And I think we find ourselves in a similar position in this perhaps more manic, chaotic version of, of the expression of individual in the Victorian times, where the, the, the question of, of if, if one soul is good or bad and how that is expressed on the outside of a person and whether the indulgence of how one looks and the pursuit of beauty, what that can do to our internal mechanisms and machinations.

[Alison Stewart]

When Kip Williams adapted this work, he adapted it with choreography, camera work, live editing, live theater. When you were in the rehearsal space for the picture of Dorian Gray, what was something that you had to work on that you really hadn't had to work on before?

[Sarah Snook]

Do you know what the really the gift of that, to be honest, was coming to the rehearsal space, being six months postpartum and being told where to stand and what to say and which way to look. There was like particular kind of choreography to this piece that was already set that I had to work within. And where previously I might have been more like, oh, I want to do my own thing, I want to discover this, or like, you know, let's find it together. This, this way of doing it at that particular time in my life was like, tell me where to stand and what's online to say when I get here. It was very structured in that way. And then once the structure was set, it was places to expand inside that format. But yeah, that was new.

[Alison Stewart]

I was going to ask the structure. It's kind of like playing music. You have to know the notes before you can play jazz, right?

[Sarah Snook]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

So you have the structure, you know where to stand, you know where the lighting is going to be. What did that do for you creatively?

[Sarah Snook]

Well, it is like saying jazz there. It's very similar to jazz in that way and that, like, it has to be. There is a formality to it. There is certain specificity to where I have to be and the, the space in which I have to say this line. But within that space, as long as I get the, the timing right, I can, I can jazz it up. I can, I can, you know, put a little bit more emphasis on this part of the sentence and then find a new thought in this part of the sentence. But if I've done that too slow at the beginning, I better speed it up by the end.

[Alison Stewart]

For people who haven't seen you perform with yourself, you're on screens quite often. What did you learn playing against yourself?

[Sarah Snook]

Well, I guess learning to really activate the imagination because it's the same every night. In some ways my performance live on stage can be different, but the prerecorded is set. So I have to find new ways to find that actor on stage, which is me. Interesting. You know, I have to find new ways to receive what they are saying.

[Alison Stewart]

You play all 26 speaking parts, but you do have castmates, the camera operators. Would you like to give them a shout out?

[Sarah Snook]

Oh, absolutely. Oh, my goodness. They are so integral and necessary to the performance of this show. This is billed as a one woman show, but it is not. It is an ensemble performance with the camera crew cast being both protagonists as well as antagonists. There are moments where they are my scene partners and then moments where they operate as if they are kind of a swarm or a hive against me. And it's all great. It's such a great way to share energy on stage.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah, it's interesting because in one of the pivotal scenes, you're on stage and Your image is on the five screens, but the camera operators have you sort of penned in.

[Sarah Snook]

Yeah, yeah, they've got me pinned, yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

Is that part of the choreography of it?

[Sarah Snook]

It is, yeah. It's quite a specific choreography too, because at the same time the stage manager is calling the show. She's basically live editing a two hour feature film every night. And there are particular words that I have to turn my head on and particular moments that the camera crew have to be ready for. And yet also at the same time, they are doing. They are performing a role, they're acting.

[Alison Stewart]

As well, watching you on the big screen. It's really interesting because as you go from role to role, your eyes change shape. They truly do when you go from roll to roll.

[Sarah Snook]

That's funny.

[Alison Stewart]

How much during the rehearsal stage did you spend in front of a mirror, if at all, figuring out how the character behaves?

[Sarah Snook]

Yeah, I didn't do any mirror work actually, now that I think about it. But I did do lots of like vocal work of where to put. Where to put the sound of the character. Whether they're at the front of the mouth, on the gum ridge or on the teeth, or where does it sit in the, in the side of the mouth or where is the. What's the tick of this particular character? Because an audience needs to know, okay, that's who we're looking. We don't have a costume yet to differentiate, but we need to find something that is essential to that person, that we know that that's Lord Henry or that's Basil. So, yeah, in some ways, because of the, the short nature of the rehearsal period, it was make a choice and sit behind it. And yeah, it's. It served us well in the end.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah, it's interesting when the play starts, we meet young Dorian and this sort of like lounge lizard like Lord Henry and then sort of shy Basil who paints the ill fated port. But it's really important that first five or ten minutes of the show. Why is that first five or ten minutes really important for the audience?

[Sarah Snook]

Well, the audience need to understand the setup, I suppose. And part of that particular way of starting the show in. Well, part of the reason of starting the show in this particular way is that Oscar Wilde once said that the Portrait of Dorian Gray, the Picture of Dorian Gray, was somewhat not autobiographical, but there were essences of him in there. There was Basil Hallwood is. Is how he saw himself. Lord Henry is how the society saw him. And Dorian is perhaps who he would want to be in other ages. And that was perhaps a veiled reference to his desire of wanting to be freely homosexual and out in the world as much as it was perhaps wanting to be an image of beauty and love and. And having that freedom and youth.

[Alison Stewart]

Which character came to you easily?

[Sarah Snook]

I hate to say that. Lord Henry came to me. Isn't that weird? I think. I think, you know, I used to watch lots of Disney films growing up, and there's a kind of the villainous sort of part act, you know, bit of the mustache.

[Alison Stewart]

Twirling.

[Sarah Snook]

I don't know. Yeah, something about, like a bit of the scar in him, like from Lion King, and. And also something about. There's something there just. Yeah, a bit of a starch. Twirling. But, you know, I listened to, like, lots of audiobooks growing up, like Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes and. And that kind of British aristocratic voice just seemed. I sat with that easy.

[Alison Stewart]

The costumes. Is it Marg Howell? Am I pronouncing it correctly?

[Sarah Snook]

Yeah, Marg. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

How do they help you as an actor? Because they become more elaborate as the show goes on.

[Sarah Snook]

Well, they do. I mean, they certainly help in the way that they hinder, in some ways. I am wearing, by the end of the show, I think, two corsets, one jumpsuit, a shirt, a blazer and a winter coat, which, as it gets warmer in season, it's going to get hotter on stage. But that is something that's quite useful in some ways to work with because it's this. It's this piling on of excess. It's a material representation of all the. All the things that Dorian has acquired and in the way that they weigh them down. Weigh him down as well.

[Alison Stewart]

When you're playing Dorian, when you're thinking about Dorian, does he think about his youth before the portrait is made?

[Sarah Snook]

Oh, yeah, definitely. I think when Lord Henry does that speech to him saying that youth is the only thing worth having and that. I think it's. It's saying it to a person who's just come out, just. Just come into their personhood. Their. Their grandfather has probably recently passed away and left him all this money. And he's been kind of locked away in this. In this very strict household. And here he is for the first time, bursting onto the scene of society. And here's an older man telling him, you better make use of it, because that's going to be gone next season. Is attitude of. Of. Of scarcity. And I think he. Yeah, it is a genuine fear that he is going to lose his youth and beauty and vitality and become maybe, perhaps become like his grandfather was that he's sort of casually allude. Well, that Mrs. Leaf alludes to.

[Alison Stewart]

As we've been thinking about this show, I started thinking about art around aging. The substance, the, even the sinners, you know, vampires. Retaining your youth. Right.

[Sarah Snook]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

And I was wondering about the portrait and I kept thinking, does the portrait show him aging or does it just show his sort of decrepitude of spirit?

[Sarah Snook]

I think it's all. I think it does show him aging and shows him aging faster than he otherwise perhaps would have and shows. Yeah. The decrepitude of his spirit and soul. Just the how it's being ravaged by his choices. And I think that's really confronting for him to see. And then the question that's constantly being posed is, am I a good person? Am I a worthwhile person? Am I, do I have a good soul? And seeing the representation of that and knowing the truth of it is something that wears too hard on him.

[Alison Stewart]

What do you have to do? What's the pep talk that you give yourself on the day when maybe you don't feel like doing it, but you have to do it?

[Sarah Snook]

Do you know what? My husband said this to me and I really valued it. Is that in, in, in, invariably there is one person in the audience who has either flown from Brazil or flown from Argentina or flown from somewhere they've made it's. It's been on their calendar for a long time. So for you to turn up today and not want to do it, it's not in there. They are there for wanting you to show them a great show and just that one person in the audience who may have a great night, then that's the person to do it for.

[Alison Stewart]

That was my conversation with actor Sarah Snook. She has earned a Tony nomination for her performance in the one woman show the Picture of Dorian Gray. It's running now through June 29th. Up next, we'll round out our hour of Tony nominated plays by heading to a small high school in Georgia to talk about John Proctor is the villain. Stay with us.

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