THEATER REVIEW ‘THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY’ : Fantasy Fop : Michael Jordan’s production at the Arts Council Center features a worthy script and a lot of heart.

Michael Jordan might be the hardest-working man on the Ventura County theater scene. Through his Gothic Productions company, he has been producing and directing plays at the Arts Council Center of Thousand Oaks for a decade, and mounting Shakespeare in the Park (among other places) for the past several summers.

Jordan’s current production is an adaptation of Irish author Oscar Wilde’s 1890 Faustian fantasy novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Jordan here triples as producer, director and playwright. He also plays two minor parts, assists in set changes between scenes and sells tickets at the Arts Council Center entrance.

The adaptation of “Dorian” is quite adept, the script one of Jordan’s most worthy recent achievements. By necessity sort of a Classics Illustrated version of the novel, it telescopes action while keeping a fair amount of dialogue. Epigrams whiz around the Arts Council Center theater (the living room of the old Janss ranch) almost as quickly as Jordan himself dashes from one chore to the next.

Dorian, you’ll recall, is the London fop who one day wishes that he could retain his youthful charm. He gets what he asks for, retaining his good looks while a portrait in his attic mysteriously acquires the marks of aging--”Sins,” as one character puts it, “. . . written in the lines of one’s face.”

A healthy dose of spirit gum is used each performance as various actors gain and lose mustaches, beards and so on while Dorian remains fresh-cheeked for the 18 years covered in the play.

Acting throughout varies considerably. Accents range from posh British to cockney to present-day Southern California; Jordan should have come up with something that all could handle. Some of the performers are clearly more at ease with the material than others, none more so than Allison Levine as actress Sybil Vane--whose character, enamored of Gray, makes a terrible Juliet onstage, but in real life becomes the ultimate Ophelia.

Ross Collins impresses as Basil Halward, who paints the original portrait; Robert M. Grant plays a strong Romeo to Vane’s Juliet; John Gonzalez’s portrayal of Gray’s friend Lord Henry Wootton improves as Wootton gets older, and Robert Paul O’Neill is suitably vain and rather moody as Gray.

This is a low-budget production, to be sure--there’s no scenery to speak of, and most of the debauchery takes place during intermission, while the audience is consuming coffee and cookies. But the production was put together with no little skill and a lot of heart.

* WHERE AND WHEN

“The Picture of Dorian Gray” continues at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 27. Tickets are $8; $7 for students and seniors. The Arts Council Center is at 482 Greenmeadow Road, Thousand Oaks. For reservations (recommended) or information, call 499-4355.