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The Confessions of Dorian Gray: The Picture of Loretta Delphine by Gary Russell

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Download The Picture of Loretta Delphine from Big Finish Audio

Big Finish Audio, July 2013
 
Set in the Everglades of Florida, The Picture of Loretta Delphine has our eponymous hero (Alexander Vlahos) encountering Kayla (Katharine Mangold), the daughter of an old friend.  Initially the encounter is civil, if a little edgy, as Kayla suspects Dorian of being her father, and neglecting her mother as she (the mother) was dying of cancer.
 
However Scott Handcock's production takes a more sinister turn as we discover that Kayla is not all she appears to be.  Dorian enters a property overflowing with blood, and understands to his horror that a killing spree has taken place.  This experience forces him to contemplate his own past - especially when he sees a familiar picture that holds a dreadful secret.  The shades of Wilde's original story become extremely apparent at this point.  The tale ends with Dorian escaping a possibly grisly fate, but not without some painful self-discoveries on his part.
 
The Picture of Loretta Delphine makes some trenchant points about the "dead hand" of the past often inhibiting present and future progress, while suggesting at the same time that the most attractive female are often the most dangerous.  This last point might be thought of as misogynist, were it not for the fact that we think Dorian deserves everything he gets, having spent much of his - fairly lengthy - life trying to escape responsibility for past actions.
 
Alexander Vlahos turns in a tortured performance as the central character in a production that is quite definitely not intended for younger listeners.