Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray

In the organizer's words:

by Oscar Wilde
Director: Tristan Linder

The shrugging of shoulders is back. Climate crisis, social inequality, political instability - we know the abyss, but instead of resistance, disenchantment with the world, unrestrained self-dramatization, irony and the celebration of beautiful things dominate. What's going on? Perhaps Oscar Wilde's cult novel offers an answer. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is captivatingly elegant - both the book and its title character, at least at first glance. "All art is both surface and symbol. He who goes beneath the surface does so at his own peril," Wilde warns in the preface to his novel. This is exactly what it is all about: diving between the lines, behind the words. What can be discovered there?

Is unrestraint really without consequences? Or how can we interpret the fact that Dorian Gray goes his own way so shamelessly? Why has he lost his moral compass? Is he - across the ages - a mirror figure of our present, who reveals more about our own desires than we would like? In any case, the painter of the portrait does not want to exhibit the painting: "I've put too much of myself into it," he says. What makes him hesitate? And what is it that gives this work its uncanny timelessness?

Tristan Linder studied drama directing at the Theaterakademie Hamburg. He has been invited to the Körber Studio Junge Regie 2025 with his production of "Sandman". "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is his first work at the SchauSpielHaus.

With: Yorck Dippe, Christoph Jöde, Henni Jörissen, Christiane von Poelnitz

Director: Tristan Linder
Stage: Anna Satu Kaunisto
Costumes: Lena Rickenstorf
Music: Alexander Schweiß
Lighting: Björn Salzer
Dramaturgy: Matthias Günther

Further information: The Picture of Dorian Gray | Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg