No granted wishes without consequences: Dorian Gray, young and exquisitely beautiful, has his portrait painted in the studio of artist Basil Hallward. Seduced by the dandyish Lord Henry’s disturbing life axioms, Dorian agrees to pawn his soul: the new painting will age instead of the body it depicts, and Dorian’s real beauty will remain forever unchanged. His physical and moral degeneration will only become evident in the portrait. Dorian loses all inhibitions and over the next 20 years, he leads the life of a living work of art, unconcerned by social rules and conventions.
What follows is a ride through the infernos of industrial capitalism and modern self-obsession – the hunger for adventure, the craving for indulgence and beautiful things, a radical egotism and the fetish of youth and physical appearance.
In his only novel (1891), Irish author Oscar Wilde created one of the most famous doppelganger-characters in world-literature. For his stage adaption, director Nikolas Darnstädt designs a world of surfaces, screens and self-exhibiting artificial characters who are drown in their insatiable yearning for eternal fame.