Oscar Wilde wrote Salome based on the story related in Matthew 14 (see right), in 1891 in Paris (in French) and planned to stage it in London with the celebrated Sarah Bernhardt in the title role. The production was, however, abandoned due to censorship restrictions on the portrayal of biblical characters on stage. This infuriated Wilde who believed, probably correctly, that the censorship was more to do with sex than religion.

The play was subsequently banned from public performance in Britain until 1931, more than thirty years after Wilde’s death, although it did appear in print, translated by Lord Alfred Douglas with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley (some of which were censored as obscene). The play has never been as popular in Britain as Wilde’s comedies but is hugely popular in the rest of Europe and especially in Russia, where it is the most performed of his works. The piece also forms the bulk of the libretto for the Richard Strauss opera of the same name.

Salome and the Symbolists

Symbolist Theatre, as a conscious art form and rebellion against realism, first came to prevalence in 1890’s Paris with the premiere of Pellas et Melisande, a seminal work by Belgian poet and dramatist Maurice Maeterlinck.

Wilde displays many influences of Symbolism in Salome, including the ancient characters, archaic language and his use of the moon, not only as symbol of the darkness of night but of lunacy, inconstancy and strange happenings, echoing Shakespeare's A Midsummer’s Nights Dream.

Notable Productions

1918: Silent Film – Theda Bara became the first screen Salome - appropriately her name is an anagram of Arab Death.

1923: Silent film - Directed by Charles Bryant with Russian dancer Alla Nazimova as Salome, Mitchell Lewis as Herod and Rose Dione as Herodias.

1950: The Salome that never was - in Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond (played by Gloria Swanson) tries to persuade Cecil B.DeMille to direct her return to the screen as Salome.

1953: Hollywood Epic - Directed by William Dieterle. Rita Hayworth as Salome, Charles Laughton as Herod and Judith Anderson as Herodias.

1961: Brigid Bazlen plays Salome to Robert Ryan’s John the Baptist in King of Kings, a Hollywood take on the life of Christ directed by Nicholas Ray.

1988: - Imogen Millias Scott played Salome with Stratford Johns as Herod and Glenda Jackson as Herodias, in director Ken Russell’s Salome’s Last Dance.

1992: Peter Hall directed his then wife soprano Maria Ewing in Richard Strauss’s Salome in which she appeared nude on the Royal Opera House stage.

1992: Steven Berkoff Directed and played Herod in a televised version of his own adaptation, with Myriam Cyr as Salome.

2011: Wilde Salome – Al Pacino films his journey playing Herod, in a powerful documentary format. Jessica Chastain gives her Salome.

Further Reading

Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann

The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde by Neil McKenna

Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde by Merlin Holland

Salome’s Modernism: Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetics of Transgression by Patra Derkes- Terun

I put a spell on you: Dancing Women from Salome to Madonna by Wendy Buonaventura

Visit The Oscar Wilde Society

The Gospel according to St Matthew, Chapter 14, Verses 3 – 11 (KJV)

The Dance of the Seven Veils

This dance has passed into popular culture as a sort of striptease with exotic, Arabian Nights fantasy overtones but, as is so often the case, the truth is somewhat different. In fact, the first known reference to the 'seven veils' is in Wilde’s play.

There are many theories as to the origin, including the legend of Babylonian goddess Ishtar's descent into the underworld, shedding an item of clothing at each of it's seven gates to gain entry. Although it has now become part of some belly-dancers' performance, often with hints of more mythical, even spiritual overtones, it is certainly now most commonly associated with Salome.