Picture of Dorian Gray
Believe me, no civilised man ever regrets a pleasure...
As London slides from one century into the next, a young man is cursed with the uncanny ability to remain both young and beautiful while descending into a life of heartless debauchery. With its glittering dialogue, provocative imagery and radical questioning of sexual and moral freedoms all brought sharply into focus by this brand-new adaptation, Oscar Wilde’s infamous parable has lost none of its power to provoke and disturb.
Using Wilde’s original words, a company of sixteen actors and all of adaptor Neil Bartlett’s trademark theatricality, this new stage version of Wilde’s black-hearted parable was commissioned by and first produced at the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s national theatre in the autumn season of 2012.
Described as having ‘a brilliantly contemporary understanding of Wilde’ (The Irish Times), Neil Bartlett is one of Britain’s most acclaimed and original theatre-makers. A theatre radical, Neil Bartlett’s recent collaborations are at the forefront of international theatre making and include work with Complicite, Improbable, Lepage, Handspring (creators of Warhorse) and Artangel.
Oscar Wilde (1854 –1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s, perhaps best known for The Importance of Being Earnest and A Picture of Dorian Gray. Today he is remembered for his plays and the circumstances of his imprisonment, followed by his early death.