Selfie, National Youth Theatre, Ambassadors Theatre

The National Youth Theatre’s autumn offering is a contemporary spin on Oscar Wilde’s tale of vanity and greed, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Written in 1890, Wilde tells the story of Dorian’s deal with the devil to immortalise his good looks in exchange for the abstract corruption of his internal soul. Dorian is the archetypal anti-hero and Wilde’s 19th century discussion of the value of aesthetics and beautification translates extraordinarily well to the Instagram generation.

Aptly titled ‘Selfie’, NYT’s production seems to differ little from the original story, only subtly changing the male lead to female and transferring Dorian into a world of hipsters, the modern day version of a Wildean aesthete. The play should resonate well with teenage audiences and this company has a strong history of introducing young people to theatre, audiences and actors alike. This is definitely one to take budding thesps to and the calibre of writer, Theatre 503’s Brad Birch, and previous NYT productions means it will be worthy of any adult audience.