De Profundis

“If you want a mask, you have to wear it. But anyone who only strives for self-fulfillment never knows where he is going. Once you've weighed the weight of the sun, measured the phases of the moon and mapped the seven heavens star by star, you're still left with yourself.” O.W.

Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years in prison in 1895 — because he provoked; because he flouted conventions, because he loved men and did not hide. His criminal case was an example — not so much against an act as against an attitude, against his irrepressible desire for freedom and recognition. His long letter to Alfred “Bosie” Douglas from prison, which became known as “De Profundis”, is the latest outcry from a broken but untamed spirit; the record of a person who always sought the limits of his civil life and who lost everything in the end. Wilde writes with the greatest literary mastery of contempt and loneliness, of pride and pain. And about a society that doesn't tolerate what it doesn't understand. What is left when everything you've ever been is taken away from you? What can you hope for when you have nothing but yourself?

Director Oliver Reese brings Wilde's eloquent attempt to reclaim life through art on stage with Jens Harzer. With “De Profundis”, Harzer makes his debut as an ensemble member.

“The best theatre productions of 2025”: For the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “De Profundis” is one of the ten best productions of 2025.