ADAPTING Oscar Wilde’s only novel for the stage is no easy task but writer Lucy Shaw has done so with aplomb and originality.

While there’s a certain confused busyness towards the end, when the characters are caught up in a whirl of events as they rush to the chilling denouement, Shaw has come up with a considered and thought-provoking version of Wilde’s gothic tale.

On a dark, spooky set in which the centrepiece of the story — the changing painting of Dorian Gray — is inventively represented by a frame full of water, there are some genuinely shivery moments as we watch the eponymous protagonist, played beautifully by the suitably handsome Stanton Wright, descend into a trough of debauchery and self-delusion.

The production has a rotating cast, using different combinations of the same four actors — two women and two men — for different performances and that entails a certain amount of fashionable gender morphing. It certainly worked at the performance I saw — Augustina Seymour as Gray’s nemesis Henry Wotton is convincingly arch and uncaring.

While this doesn’t diminish the overall impact or enjoyment, it does at times blur the understanding, especially for those unfamiliar with the storyline.

At the same time, it allows for a fluidity of interpretation in sympathy with the portrayal of a hedonistic world where “anything goes.” Generally, there are two actors on stage at any one time, while the other pair hover unobtrusively in the background, providing narration and scene-setting as they echo the private and tortured thoughts of each character.

The overall effect is a disturbing portrait of an individual who thinks he has found something profound but is lost in vacuity.

In so doing, Shaw holds up a mirror up to the modern obsession with short-term gratification and superficiality.

Runs until July 6, box office: jermynstreettheatre.co.uk, then tours.