Exclusive: Fionn Whitehead to star in Dorian Gray online production from What A Carve Up! team
© Left: Pip
Exclusive: Dunkirk and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch star Fionn Whitehead will lead a virtual production of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Created by the same team that brought the online production of What A Carve Up! to screens, The Picture of Dorian Gray will be adapted by Henry Filloux-Bennett and director by Tamara Harvey (artistic director of Theatr Clwyd).
A contemporary digital adaptation of the Oscar Wilde classic with Gray depicted as a smartphone-obsessed "influencer", the piece will be available from 16 to 31 March. Whitehead will take on the titular role, with further casting to be confirmed.
Filloux-Bennett and Harvey commented: "So many of us have found ourselves living in an ever more online world over the last year. But the benefits and the connections digital have offered us come with a darker side – deterioration in mental health, isolation, online manipulation to name just a few. Following What a Carve Up! we really wanted to explore what would happen if you brought Oscar Wilde's Faustian tale kicking and screaming into a world of Instagram, Facebook and dating apps."
The piece is produced by The Barn Theatre in Cirencester, the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield and the New Wolsey Theatre, with Oxford Playhouse in Oxfordshire and Theatr Clwyd in Mold joining the collaboration as co-producers.
Tickets will be available from 10am today. As part of the production, a plethora of venues across the UK will be able to sell tickets – these are Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Arts At The Old Fire Station, artsdepot – North Finchley, Belgrade Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Guildhall Arts Centre – Grantham, Hertford Theatre, Mercury Theatre, Octagon Theatre Bolton, Stamford Arts Centre, The Dukes, The Elgiva, The Lighthouse Theatre, The Lowry, The Torch, The Watermill Theatre, Theatre By The Lake, Theatre Royal Winchester and Watford Palace Theatre.
Further casting and creatives are to be revealed.
