Succession star Sarah Snook is taking on all 26 characters in a stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, coming to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London in January 2024.
Adapted and directed by Sydney Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Kip Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray will play the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 23 January to 13 April 2024.
Billed as a stunning modern reworking of Wilde’s devastating, brilliant story, Wilde’s timeless text is revolutionised by a production which uses video and theatre, with an intricately choreographed collection of on-stage cameras helping to bring to life Sarah Snook’s performance as 26 characters from the novel.
The production was first seen at Sydney Theatre Company in 2020, playing to sold out audiences and critical acclaim, and marks a new partnership between Australian producer Michael Cassel and his Michael Cassel Group, and Sydney Theatre Company. They plan to take more of Sydney Theatre Company’s productions out to global audiences.
Alongside Cassel, some big-hitting producers are involved, including Adam Kenwright and his new Kindred Partners production company; Theatre Royal Haymarket owner and West End rich lister Len Blavatnik, and Danny Cohen who runs Blavatnik’s Access Entertainment company; Broadway producers Daryl Roth, Amanda Lipitz and Henry Tisch, and UK director and theatre company producer Jonathan Church.
The wider creative team for the production includes Design by Marg Horwell, Lighting Design by Nick Schlieper, Composition & Sound Design by Clemence Williams, Video Design by David Bergman and Eryn Jean Norvill is the Dramaturg & Creative Associate.
Sarah Snook made her West End debut in the 2016 production of The Master Builder starring Ralph Fiennes and directed by Matthew Warchus.
She was most recently seen as Shiv Roy in HBO’s hit series Succession, a role that earned her a Golden Globe Award and a Critics Choice Award and was nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
In Australia, Snook has won two Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards for her work in film and television, and a nomination for the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress for her performance in 2015’s The Beautiful Lie, and a Helpmann Award nomination for Best Female Actor in a Play for her performance in Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Saint Joan.
Succession stars are capitalising on the global success of the show, now that the fourth and final season of Jesse Armstrong’s series has finished, with Brian Cox coming to the West End in Long Day’s Journey Into Night at the Wyndham’s Theatre from 19 March 2024; Harriet Walter starring in The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre from 16 November 2023; and Jeremy Strong leading a revival of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People on Broadway in early 2024.
Currently playing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket is the hit revival of political comedy Accidental Death of an Anarchist, until 9 September 2023; and kid’s show The Tiger Who Came To Tea from 10 July to 3 September 2023.
Sarah Snook said in a press statement that: “I am elated to return to the London stage in such an astonishing piece of theatre,” Snook said. “From Oscar Wilde’s remarkable original text to Kip Williams’ stunning adaptation, this story of morality, innocence, narcissism, and consequence is going to be thrilling to recreate for a new audience. I can’t wait.”
Director and Adapter, Kip Williams said: “In creating a new piece of theatre like The Picture of Dorian Gray you always hope to have the opportunity to share it with a wider audience. I am so excited for theatre lovers in London to experience our show and am thrilled to have the extraordinary Sarah Snook bringing to life the many characters of Oscar Wilde’s remarkable story.”
Michael Cassel, producer of the West End season, said: “I knew, from the very first time I saw The Picture of Dorian Gray, that it deserved a global audience. Kip Williams’ genius production is transformative, innovative, transfixing and entertaining and I am beyond excited that the inimitable Sarah Snook will star in this incredible production.”
Co-producer Adam Kenwright said: “This thrilling new look at one of Oscar Wilde’s most seminal works is a benchmark work of modern theatre and I am delighted to be joining my good friend Michael Cassel and team bringing it to London. A huge degree of thanks must go to Theatre Royal Haymarket’s Len Blavatnik and Danny Cohen. We are enlivened by their vision and their partnership in bringing The Picture of Dorian Gray to London.”
Federal Arts Minister for New South Wales, Australia, Tony Burke MP said: “From the standing ovation at the first performance it was clear that this was a production that belonged on stages all over the world,” he said. “Michael Cassel Group, Kindred Partners and Sydney Theatre Company are making sure that one of the world’s great works of literature, combined with the best of Australian creativity, is about to take the West End by storm.”
More about tickets to The Picture of Dorian Gray at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London
