From the opening scene of Dorian Gray at Hereford’s Courtyard Theatre, with a young crowd dancing and swaying without taking their eyes off their phone screens against a backdrop of the images and sounds of online media, it’s clear this will be no literal retelling of Oscar Wilde’s late-Victorian fable.

Indeed with credits for a digital content creator, two music composers and a stage combat practitioner, Courtyard Senior Youth Theatre’s ambitious multimedia production, running until this evening (July 27), goes all-out for spectacle.

Writer and director Rebecca Cook adapts for the media-obsessed 21st century the tale of a rising star who sells his soul so that a hidden image of him might do his ageing and declining for him.

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“I’d give up my soul for youth, the only thing worth having,” he declares as he wishes this of his photo, taken in his early days by devoted artist Basil Hallward (played by Jessica Warburton).

A mature performance from Caydon Cooke catches the title role’s ambivalence between the life he then gains of open-ended fame and sensuality, and alarm as the consequences of this mount up.

“Charming”, as Dorian now styles himself, starts by seducing and then abandoning a young starlet, Sybil Vane, for which her brother will in time seek revenge.

Dorian Gray at the Courtyard, Hereford Dorian Gray at the Courtyard, Hereford (Image: Mark Douet)

Meanwhile he moves up in the celebrity world, from collecting a Baftas to a cringe-making stint presenting the Oscars. But will his past deeds and secrets finally catch up with him?

Through all this, Lilly Graham as film director and Dorian’s mentor Henry Wotton manages to convey a Wildean worldliness in guiding his progress.

Interspersed with this are an army of online commentators, led by homely social influencer “Agatha” (Lily Gillespie) who with her tea obsession adds a contrasting levity.

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Wilde aficionados will meanwhile enjoy nods to the celebrated wit’s other works including Charming’s role in a Wild West-set Importance of Being Ernest.

There are moments when, as with actual online media, things can feel a little overwhelming, and some dialogue is occasionally hard to catch over the effects.

But their overall impact is to heighten the inescapable turmoil that Dorian slides into as his Faustian pact plays out.

Tickets for the show, which is recommended for ages 12 and above, are available from courtyard.org.uk or from the theatre box office.