RSC revives Wilde’s one-act play Salomé

Published: 27 May 2017
Reporter: Steve Orme

Matthew Tennyson (Salomé) in rehearsal Credit: Richard Lakos

The Royal Shakespeare Company is to reinvent Oscar Wilde’s lyrical one-act play Salomé, with the central character becoming a “powerful and enigmatic figure, both erotic and chaste”.

Originally banned in Britain, Salomé is being staged to mark 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.

This new production is directed by Owen Horsley, associate director on the RSC’s King and Country season in 2015, and explores sexual ambiguity in the contemporary world.

The prophet, Jokanaan, rejects the sexual advances of Herod’s stepdaughter Salomé. When she is compelled to dance by Herod, Salomé is filled by lust-driven revenge and demands Jokanaan’s head as payment.

The cast comprises Suzanne Burden (Herodias), Andro Cowperthwaite (page of Herodias), Ilan Evans (Naaman / singer), Gavin Fowler (Iokanaan), Bally Gill (Jew), Robert Ginty (soldier), Ben Hall (soldier), Christopher Middleton (Nazarene), Miles Mitchell (soldier), Byron Mondahl (Nazarene), Matthew Pidgeon (Herod), Matthew Tennyson (Salomé), Jon Trenchard (Jew), Johnson Willis (Tigellinus), Simon Yadoo (Jew) and Assad Zaman (young Syrian).

Designer is Bretta Gerecke and lighting is by Kristina Hjelm. Music is by American artist Perfume Genius, sound by Helen Atkinson and movement by Polly Bennett. Fights are by Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown.

Salomé, which has a running time of 75 minutes with no interval, runs in the Swan Theatre, Stratford from Friday 2 June until Wednesday 6 September.

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