Kip Williams Says The Picture of Dorian Gray Is a 'Love Letter to Theatre Making and to Filmmaking'

Director Kip Williams is well aware of the criticisms of The Picture of Dorian Gray on Broadway. Reviews have questioned whether the show is actually theatre—because star Sarah Snook performs in front of a video camera for its entire duration, with her image being projected on a screen. Sure, there may be "over 400 camera edits" in the show, but Williams doesn't think that disqualifies his adaptation of Dorian Gray from being an act of pure theatre.

"We've had instant standing ovations every night," he says proudly. "I think the reason why it connects with audiences is because for all its contemporary technology and innovation, it's also a very ancient form of theatre—of an actor coming to an audience to tell them a story directly. In that sense, it's a piece that marries the best of contemporary technology and innovation with very ancient theatre practices and honors and celebrates both of those within this one piece of work."

The show's six Tony Award nominations have been a vindication for Williams. Not only is he nominated for his direction, so is Snook's performance and the show's set designers (Marg Horwell and David Bergman), costume designer Horwell, lighting designer Nick Schlieper, and sound designer Clemence Williams. Everyone nominated has worked on the show since it premiered in Australia at Sydney Theatre Company.

"It's a testament to the incredible crew who work so hard to bring the show to life every night. It's such a technically complex piece," says Williams. "There's such detailed choreography within the work, and we have such an amazing crew who bring it to life. So it really feels that this collective nomination of everybody in the [creative] team means we can share it with the whole Dorian Gray family."

The Picture of Dorian Gray is not a straightforward adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel. Williams has cut down the book to fit a two-hour running time, and he has Snook play every character in the story—quick-changing in front of the audience and switching characters while still onstage. And the entire thing is filmed by numerous cameras, with the audience watching both Snook herself on the stage, and also her image on the screen. For Williams, it makes the show a commentary on society's obsession with screens, particularly phone screens, and how it's negatively impacting everyone's self-perception.

That was why Williams didn't want to do a straight period adaptation of the work; instead, the medium is truly the message.

"It's inspired by Wilde's philosophy that life itself is like one grand act of theatre, and people are constantly in an act of performing their identity, and they're expressing themselves through acts of performance in every different sphere of their lives, from the public through to the private." And so in Dorian Gray on Broadway, the audience gets to witness the "performance being constructed," with its artifice coming through clearly. Continues Williams: "What Wilde was getting at in the piece [is] the way in which we have the ability to construct an idea of ourselves and convey that to people. And then the question becomes: How truthful are we in that act of performance? And I think that that's a question, particularly given that in 2025, we live so much of our lives in a virtual space, where we're constantly performing ideas of ourselves. It's a very urgent question for contemporary audiences."

Sarah Snook and company of *The Picture of Dorian Gray* Michaelah Reynolds

And Snook cannot pull off her artful performance without the numerous camera operators and stagehands filming her and helping her get in and out of costume. Sure, the show is billed as a one-person play. But Snook is joined on the stage the entire time by numerous crew members. If life is one grand act of theatre, then at Dorian Gray, audiences can see how theatre is created. And also life itself.

"One of the things I love about the show is that the crew is in the curtain call," says Williams. "They join Sarah in pulling off this Herculean feat of acting...you have witnessed them the entire night construct this work of theatre. It really is a love letter to theatre making and to filmmaking. You're witnessing these incredible craftspeople put together a story for you before your very eyes, with the costume changes and the camera moves...It really does kind of dig at the brilliance of how we can shift through different modes of storytelling in order to create a night of theatre for an audience."