The reviews are in for De Profundis, the Berliner Ensemble’s staging of the letter Oscar Wilde wrote to Lord Alfred Douglas from Reading Gaol, which has its UK premiere in a week-long run at the Coronet Theatre. Directed by the company’s artistic director Oliver Reese and performed in German with English surtitles by Jens Harzer, it confines Wilde to a narrow, brightly lit box for almost two hours. The critics who have filed are close to unanimous about Harzer, and it is his performance that carries every rating; where they part company is over the surtitles, which two of them felt cost the English-speaking audience something, and over whether Reese’s theatrical devices serve Wilde or get in his way.
The verdict: five reviews in so far, all of them rated: one five-star notice and four four-star, an average of 4.2 out of 5. All five critics agree on Jens Harzer, whose performance is the main reason given for every rating; the reservations, from Theatre Weekly and The Arts Desk, concern the length, the score and some of the directorial choices rather than the acting.
What are critics saying about De Profundis?
BroadwayWorld
Reviewer: Cindy Marcolina
Cindy Marcolina gives the production full marks and follows Harzer’s Wilde from a wounded composure, through a mounting and almost manic agitation, to a quieter and more reflective close.
"…with first-row access to an actor’s career high."
She finds the German text deeply poetic, praises the pacing of the delivery, and credits Hansjörg Hartung’s narrow white box, the lighting and Jörg Gollasch’s score with tightening the tension around a remarkably physical performance.
The Arts Desk
"Madness beneath the method"
Reviewer: David Nice
David Nice reads the evening as a study in insanity, hears echoes of Wagner’s Parsifal and Strauss’s Salome in it, and judges Wilde’s letter unreliable as history but superb as dramatic writing.
"…it fully justifies this team's journey from Berlin. Bravo, Coronet, once again."
His reservations are about the music, including a song setting of one of Wilde’s best-known lines, and a slow final descent that begins to feel overlong; even so, the closing image of Harzer finally stepping out of his box strikes him as tantalisingly open.
Theatre Weekly
Reviewer: Pely Carney
Pely Carney arrived sceptical about one-person shows, and about Wilde’s letter as material for the stage, and was won round in part.
"But the fourth star belongs to Harzer."
The reviewer found the two surtitle screens set too far from the action, forcing a choice between reading and watching, and thought some of Reese’s devices overworked, leaving the production close to excellent without quite getting there.
Everything Theatre
Reviewer: Mary Pollard
Mary Pollard calls Harzer’s performance epic and dwells on the staging, a raised, box-like cell whose walls the lighting seems to close in as the sentence wears on.
"This is a superb production with huge impact…"
She also finds room for the music and for the episodic changes of set and light that mark the passage of time, and argues that the letter’s questions about prejudice feel pressing today.
The Spy in the Stalls
Reviewer: Hannah Bothelton
Hannah Bothelton admires the unfussy direction and the way the long letter is shaped into episodes of shifting intensity, with Steffen Heinke’s lighting singled out for praise.
"Acclaimed German actor Jens Harzer attacks Wilde’s words with ferocious intensity and disarming vulnerability."
Writing as a non-German speaker, she accepts that some of the poetry is lost in the surtitles, but finds that the emotional force carries regardless.
Read Hannah Bothelton’s full review at The Spy in the Stalls
For more from the critics, see our roundups of What the Animals Say at the Finborough Theatre and Bull at the Park Theatre.
De Profundis runs at the Coronet Theatre until Wednesday 7 October 2026, with performances at 7.30pm and none on Monday 5 October. It is performed in German with English surtitles and runs for approximately 1 hour 50 minutes with no interval.
