The story of the handsome young man who barters his soul for youth and beauty is one of Wilde’s most well-known tales. In a new production of Dorian Gray directed by KT Roberts at the ADC theatre, the title role is played by Sam Curry, while James Evans is the elegant and corrupting dandy Lord Henry Wotton and James Modedale plays the infatuated artist Basil Hallward who creates the painting that will decay in Dorian’s place.

Wilde’s novel was transformed into script by John Osborne for a BBC-televised production starring Peter Firth and John Gielgud in 1975. It is his script that is being brought back to life at the ADC. Osborne’s writing  accentuates the homosexual elements lurking in Dorian Gray, KT tells me. Where Wilde (at the behest of his publisher) leaves much of the relationship between Dorian and Alan, the friend Dorian blackmails into destroying the evidence of a murder, to the imagination, Osborne’s script is much more explicit as to the nature of the secret Dorian threatens to expose.

However, shadowy subtext and suggestion still play an important role in the drama: ‘It’s an intimate play with so much going on beneath the surface,’ KT tells me. ‘On stage, the actors say one thing while their bodies tell a different story.’ Body language and movement are important elements in KT’s production. With her background in musical theatre KT is used to the idea of being expressive through movement and wants her cast to be as physically free as possible.

One of her innovations in directing the play is the creation of a Chorus made up of the characters who flicker through Dorian’s life. Robed in sombre black, the Chorus are to show the passing of time that leaves Dorian unmarked and portray his state of mind as he descends into madness. They are to move as an interwoven, tactile unit - which necessitated some speedy cast-bonding. ‘It’s hard not to become close when you’ve spent half an hour blindfolded with your head in someone’s armpit,’ I’m told.

In keeping with the surrealist aesthetic of the production the set is formed of broken mirrors, inspired by Robert Jones’ design for the RSC’s 2008 production of Hamlet in which all the action was reflected back in the mirror-like black floor and in the huge mirrors along the back of the stage. KT tells me she ruled out a painted box-set from the start: ‘They’re so hard to get right, and even with the best artists in the world the whole thing just looks like it’s in danger of toppling over.’

For the crew at the ADC who helped create her mirrored set KT has nothing but praise: ‘they never tell you what you want is impossible - and when it is, they’ll find a way around it.’ Although this is KT’s first time directing at the ADC it is the eleventh production she has been involved with since she arrived in Cambridge last October. As a theatre to work in she tells me the ADC is a dream come true: ‘It’s an awesome space - they have everything you could possibly want.’

The Picture of Dorian Gray opens at the ADC theatre on Tuesday 11th October.