Dorian

written by Phoebe Eclair-Powell and Owen Horsley Original author Oscar Wilde

wednesday 15 May 2024 - Saturday 18 May 2024

Directed by Kell Cowley

Dorian Gray – handsome, hedonistic, narcissistic – sells his soul for eternal beauty. Basil and Henry join him for the ride until it all goes too far, and the hangovers become murderous...

Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was a succès de scandale on its publication in 1891, accused of violating the laws of public morality. It immediately captured the minds of its readers, the spirit of the age, and the soul of a man with nothing to declare but his genius.

This thrilling stage adaptation by Phoebe Eclair-Powell and Owen Horsley follows one man's descent from glorious debauchery to epic self-destruction, intertwined with Wilde's own life story, his tragic persecution, and ultimate imprisonment in Reading Gaol. Its first full production premiered at Reading Rep Theatre in October 2021.

Kell Cowley is a new director to the Harlequin Theatre following the successes of her sell out production Gruesome Playground Injuries at Chester Little Theatre and Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone and A Number at Davenham Players.

'Eye-poppingly experimental... an explosion of glamorous and grotesque characters – some Victorian, some contemporary and some pure camp figments of the imagination... a dizzying adventure that always dares to dazzle... so very brave and original'

Guardian

'A radical adaptation of Oscar Wilde's gothic novel that reaffirms and celebrates the piece's significance as a touchstone of queer art'

The Stage

'Sizzles with homoerotic fervour... a deliciously camp rebuke of the attitudes which saw a man humiliated, brutalised and outcast for being gay'

Telegraph

GET INVOLVED

AUDITIONS: Wednesday 7 February 2024, 7.45pm

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