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Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians

We pay our respects to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestors of this land, their spirits and their legacy. The foundations laid by these ancestors give strength, inspiration and courage to current and future generations, both First Nations and non-First Nations peoples, towards creating a better Queensland.

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  • What’s On
  • Creative Learning
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray
  • Creative Learning
  • Theatre

cl-the-picture-of-dorian-gray The Picture of Dorian Gray QPAC Creative Learning, Theatre The Picture of Dorian Gray

10 - 28 Aug 2027
Glasshouse Theatre
Make a booking
$39
1 hour 55 minutes
no interval, subject to change without notice

Overview

By Oscar Wilde
Adapted and directed by Kip Williams
A Sydney Theatre Company production

Bring your senior English class to Kip Williams' Olivier and Tony Award-winning cine-theatre adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, making its Queensland premiere at QPAC. After sold-out runs in London and on Broadway, Nikki Shiels takes on the mantle from Eryn Jean Norvill and Sarah Snook, playing 26 characters in a tour-de-force blend of live performance, stagecraft and video technology.

The Picture of Dorian Gray gives students a rich case study in how a canonical text is transformed for a contemporary audience through adaptation. Through the production, they can explore how performance style, multimedia and cine-theatre technique, design, characterisation, language and dramatic convention work together to shape meaning and shift audience response — and, through Wilde's story of Dorian's descent into vanity and hedonism, engage with the text's enduring questions of morality and consequence.

Curriculum Links

Dramatic forms and styles
Monologue, Heightened Realism, Multidisciplinary Theatre, Comedy of Manners, Camp, Contemporary Performance, Digital/Screen-based Theatre 

Themes and ideas
Societal Constructions of Power, Influence of Art, Music and Theatre, The Construction of Identity, Beauty and ageing, Technology and contemporary storytelling

General Capabilities
Literacy, Critical & Creative Thinking, Personal & Social Capability, Ethical Understanding

Senior General Drama

  • Unit 2: Reflect - Students explore representational dramatic traditions, including Realism, and investigate contemporary approaches that extend, disrupt or transform realist conventions. The Picture of Dorian Grey provides an opportunity to view the use of Heightened Realism.
  • Unit 4: Transform - Students manipulate and shape dramatic languages to reframe text, purpose, context and meaning. The Picture of Dorian Gray provides an opportunity to examine how Kip Williams transforms Wilde's novel through contemporary performance conventions, technology, adaptation and multidisciplinary theatrical practice.

Drama in Practice

  • Unit option A: Collaboration
  • Unit option C: Contemporary

International Baccalaureate

  • The Arts – Theatre

Senior Literature

  • Unit 1: Introduction to Literary Studies
  • Unit 2: Intertextuality
  • Unit 3: Literature and Identity
  • Unit 4: Independent explorations

Senior General English

  • Unit 1: Perspectives and texts
  • Unit 2: Texts and culture
  • Unit 3: Textual connections

Year 10 English
The production provides opportunities for students to explore how a literary text is adapted, transformed and reinterpreted for a contemporary audience, and how aesthetic choices influence the representation of character, identity, values and ideas.

  • AC9E10LA07: Analyse representations of individuals, groups and places and evaluate how they reflect their context in literary texts by world authors
  • AC9E10LE03: Analyse how the aesthetic qualities associated with text structures, language features, literary devices and visual features, and the context in which these texts are experienced, influence audience response
  • AC9E10LE04: Evaluate the social, moral or ethical positions represented in literature
  • AC9E10LE05: Analyse how text structure, language features, literary devices and intertextual connections shape interpretations of texts
  • AC9E10LE07: Analyse and evaluate the aesthetic qualities of texts
  • AC9E10LY01: Analyse and evaluate how people, places, events and concepts are represented in texts and reflect contexts
  • AC9E10LY03: Analyse and evaluate how language features are used to implicitly or explicitly represent values, beliefs and attitudes

Year 9 and 10 – DRAMA

  • AC9ADR10E01: Investigate use of elements of drama, performance skills and/or conventions to communicate and/or challenge ideas, perspectives and/or meaning in drama across cultures, times, places and/or other contexts
  • AC9ADR10D01: Develop performance skills and/or techniques to manipulate elements of drama and/or use conventions to communicate the physical and psychological aspects of roles and characters consistent with intentions
  • AC9ADR10D02: Reflect on their own and others’ drama or practices to refine and inform their use of elements of drama, conventions and/or approaches to shape and sustain dramatic action

Learning Resources

Learning Resources are coming soon.

Plan Your Visit

  • QPAC's Certificate of Currency
  • Schools Risk Assessment
  • Plan Your Visit

Important Information

Year Level Suitability

Years 10 to 12

Warning

This production contains adult themes including drug use and suicide, theatrical haze, a live gunshot and herbal cigarettes.

Lockout Policy

This performance has a total lockout and latecomers will not be admitted.

Performance Dates & Times

Tue 10 August 2027, 7pm
Wed 11 August 2027, 7pm
Thu 12 August 2027, 7pm
Fri 13 August 2027, 7:30pm 
Wed 18 August 2027, 1pm
Wed 18 August 2027, 7pm
Thu 19 August 2027, 7pm
Fri 20 August 2027, 7:30pm
Tue 24 August 2027, 7pm
Wed 25 August 2027, 1pm
Thu 26 August 2027, 7pm
Fri 27 August 2027, 7:30pm 

Ticket Prices

Great discounts available for school groups 10+. Select seating allocations apply.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 
B-Reserve: $39 per student

1 teacher free per 10 students

Bookings

Submit your school group booking request online or contact the Group Sales Team on (07) 3840 7466 or at groups@qpac.com.au from Monday to Friday during business hours.

Glasshouse Theatre Visual and Sensory Guide

The Glasshouse Theatre Visual and Sensory Guide [PDF, 5MB] provides information on what you can expect while visiting QPAC.

Creatives

  • Designer Marg Horwell
  • Lighting Designer Nick Schlieper
  • Composer and Sound Designer Clemence Williams
  • Video Designer David Bergman
  • With Nikki Shiels

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