Critics go Wilde for ‘virtuoso’ Sarah Snook

Australia’s Succession star Sarah Snook earns five-star reviews for her ‘brilliant’ and ‘virtuoso’ solo turn in Dorian Gray in London’s West End.

Sarah Snook in Dorian Gray. Picture: Marc Brenner

British and American critics can be a tough crowd, but Australian star Sarah Snook has earned a swag of five-star reviews for her “brilliant” and “virtuoso” solo turn in the Sydney Theatre Company’s adaptation of the Oscar Wilde novel, The picture of Dorian Gray, playing in London’s West End.

Snook plays 26 characters in the STC adaptation, which fuses live acting with prerecorded and live video, and which was first seen in Australia in 2020.

Snook’s performance was this week hailed as “staggering” by The Daily Express and “phenomenal” by The Hollywood Reporter.

The Adelaide-raised actor – who recently won Golden Globe and Emmy awards for her portrayal of Shiv Roy, daughter of a cold and calculating media mogul in the blue-chip television drama Succession – also earned five-star raves from London’s Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Financial Times.

In his five-star, Daily Express arts editor Stefan Kyriazis wrote: “After almost two breathless, breathtaking hours of this staggering one-woman tour de force … I can confirm that Sarah Snook is worth selling your own dear old ma for (sorry, mum). Why isn’t she already a major theatre star over here?’’

Kyriazis added that by the end of this show, directed by STC boss Kip Williams, “the rest of us simply slump gobsmacked in our seats, wondering what the hell had we just seen, and how in all the hells did she do it?’’

The Guardian added to the chorus of praise, declaring the multimedia show “beautiful, brilliant and maniacally unmissable”, and The Financial Times said that while some melodramatic twists “begin to grate”, Snook offers “a virtuoso performance in an astonishing piece of theatre”.

The financial paper also praised Williams’ “super-smart idea of packaging Wilde’s Gothic classic for our own age – a world obsessed with image where you can curate your life, your likes and your looks on the smartphone in your hand’’.

The latest round of critical raves will boost the likelihood of a Broadway season for Williams’ adaptation. They will also be a shot in the arm for the STC, which is earning a royalty from the production.

The theatre company reportedly lost $1.5m in donations and ticket sales following a backlash from Jewish donors and customers to an unauthorised, pro-Palestinian protest by three actors during an opening night curtain call for The Seagull last year.