Salomé – Lazarus Theatre Company / Southwark Playhouse, London

A review of Salomé, a Lazarus Theatre Company production now on at the Southwark Playhouse. Some clever modern flourishes bring this challenging work by Oscar Wilde to life.

Salomé

“The piece is written in French – half Biblical, half pornographic – by Oscar Wilde himself. Imagine the average British public’s reception of it.” That was the view of an official of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, who, when Salomé was first written in 1891, had to approve any play before it was performed. They banned it. It was first performed five years later in 1896 in Paris. Different translations and adaptations followed, including an opera by Richard Strauss, a ballet, and various filmed versions beginning in 1908.

Salomé is certainly a challenging play even today. It tells the story of – you guessed it – Salomé. She (in the original) is the step daughter of one of the biblical Herods. He has Jokanaan (John the Baptist) locked up in a cistern below his palace. On a moonlit night Salomé hears his voice, insists on meeting him, becomes enamoured of him, but he rejects her. Later, when Herod insists that Salomé dance for him in return for anything she desires, she desires the head of Jokanaan on a silver charger. The story is simple, but steeped in desire and death.

The thing about Salomé is that Wilde does not make it easy for his audience. This is not the light-hearted, acerbic Wilde you may know from The Importance of Being Earnest or Lady Windermere’s Fan. This is Wilde as a Symbolist, as a Decadent. The text is full of heavy symbolism (the moon is something different for each character, for example), and frequent repetition. I was therefore interested to see how Lazarus Theatre Company, whose mission is to reimagine and revitalise classic plays, would approach it.

Modernising Salomé

Firstly, let me say the costume and set design by Sorcha Corcoran is perfect, and well deserving of the recently announced Offies Nominations. What better way to build a world for this highly stylised play than with a highly stylised set and muted black, white and gold colour scheme? We can believe this is a place where one gazes longingly at the moon, falls in love in a heartbeat. And Ben Jacobs’ lighting design heightens the drama beautifully.

This is also a stripped back cast. Extraneous characters (including some who may trouble our modern sensibilities) have been removed, so we are left with six actors, plus the audience, who stand in for Herod’s guests. Among these there were several very strong performances: Prince Plockley as Jokanaan is all coiled energy, stalking around the stage with singular focus. Jamie O’Neill is a predatory and handsome Herod, drunk on hedonistic power. And then of course there is Salomé himself, played in this gender-swapped version by a glittery Fred Thomas, using his beauty to get what he wants.

Ultimately, it is this gender swap which is the most interesting aspect of the production. By changing the gender dynamics, director Ricky Dukes is able to interrogate the power dynamics between Herod and Salomé more effectively. Herod wants what he can’t have. But does he want Salomé, or to dominate Salomé? Reworking the infamous Dance of the Seven Veils as a balletic game of cat and mouse is a further stroke of genius.

This is a play which is not often staged, and a good opportunity to see it in a thoughtful, arresting production. You still have a week to catch it at the Southwark Playhouse.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

Salomé on until 11 September 2021

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