Keighley Playhouse is going ‘wilde’ for its latest production – a daring and dangerous exploration of the quest for eternal youth.
The Picture Of Dorian Gray, based on Oscar Wilde’s powerful tale, is set in a society that prizes beauty and youth above all. Throw in some Victorian hypocrisy and you have a dark story of vanity, exploitation and a terrifying secret portrait.
Director Mike Boothroyd says: “The Picture Of Dorian Gray was written in Oscar Wilde’s characteristically dazzling manner; full of stinging epigrams, shrewd observations and moral disintegration, which caused something of a scandal when it first appeared in 1890.
“A few years after its publication, Wilde faced charges of ‘gross indecencies’ and went from being a British celebrity to a broken, penniless man living in exile.”
Dorian indulges himself in his money and social status and forgets everything else. Caught up in self-indulgent pleasures, he loses sight of everything valuable to him and becomes his own worst enemy. When he tries to find absolution and true love it comes too late. His empty pleasures and cruel callousness have scarred his soul forever.
The Picture Of Dorian Gray runs at Keighley Playhouse from Monday to next Saturday. Ring 08451 267859.