Cast set for UK tour of The Picture of Dorian Gray, opening at Watford Palace Theatre in October
Jack Crumlin will lead the cast of a new stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, opening at Watford Palace Theatre on 1 October 2026 before touring the UK through to November.
Crumlin, whose previous credits include Stranger Things: The First Shadow and To Kill a Mockingbird in the West End, will play the title role. The production is adapted and directed by Sean Aydon and presented by Tilted Wig in association with Watford Palace Theatre. WhatsOnStage
The company around him spans familiar West End and touring names. Mark Oxtoby, whose credits include Back to the Future and The Phantom of the Opera, plays Basil Hallward — the artist whose portrait of Dorian sets the story in motion. Mark Hawkins, seen in The Woman in Black in the West End and on tour, takes the role of Lord Henry Wotton, the cynical aristocrat who leads Dorian astray.
Rounding out the principal cast are Lydia Whitehead as Sybil Vane, Ayesha Griffiths as Catherine Vane, Lydea Perkins as Lady Victoria Wotton, and Max Burnett as Romeo.
Wilde's 1890 novel follows a young man whose portrait ages and bears the marks of his corruption while he himself stays unblemished. It is one of the most adapted works in the English canon, spanning film, theatre and opera, and the story's themes of vanity, youth and moral decay have kept it in near-constant circulation on stage.
The tour route takes in six venues across England and Wales. After Watford Palace Theatre (1–3 October), the production moves to Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot (7–10 October), Eastbourne Theatres (13–17 October), Theatre by the Lake in Keswick (20–24 October), Theatr Clwyd in Mold (27–31 October), and the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford (3–7 November).
The creative team includes set and costume designer Sarah Beaton, lighting designer Peter Small, sound designer Russell Ditchfield, and Kaitlin Howard as fight director and intimacy coordinator — a role now standard in UK theatre for choreographing physical contact safely between performers.
Tilted Wig is a touring production company that builds shows specifically for the regional circuit, where venues rely on visiting drama to fill their programmes outside of in-house seasons. The partnership with Watford Palace Theatre gives the production a producing partner with its own creative infrastructure rather than simply a receiving house.
For audiences outside London, the tour brings a fresh Wilde adaptation to six towns and cities between October and early November, with a cast drawn largely from current West End productions.
