Talenti theatrical company is this month presenting Oscar Wilde’s notorious one-act play Salomé, adapted and translated into Maltese by Alfred Palma.
The original 1891 version of the play was in French. An English translation was published three years later.
Salomé has a biblical theme and is tragic and brutal to the extreme.
The four main characters are Herod Antipas, the corrupt, violent and lustful Tetrarch of Judea; his wife Herodias, a dissolute and ambitious woman; her beautiful young daughter from her first marriage, the cruel, lascivious and vain Salomé; and Jokanaan (John the Baptist).
Jokanaan has been imprisoned on insistence on the part of Herodias, for the prophet was always rebuking her and her daughter for the scandalous and abhorrent lifestyles they were leading. On her part, Salomé is set on seducing Jokanaan and will try everything to bend him to her will.
Herod, forever superstitious, is terrified of Jokanaan, and tactfully ignores Herodias’s insistence to get rid of him
But the prophet resists her and continues to chastise the girl and her mother. Nevertheless, Salomé won’t be rebuffed. Herod, forever superstitious, is terrified of Jokanaan, and tactfully ignores Herodias’s insistence to get rid of him.
At long last, Salomé (and her mother) get their way thanks to a highly erotic dance which she performs at the drunken Tetrarch’s request...
With this play, Wilde was relegated to the bad books of the hugely hypocritical society of the London of his times. The play caused a sensation which paved the way for more controversies and more literary liberties in everything Wilde wrote afterwards, which helped to perpetrate his eventual tragic fall from grace to utter disgrace.
This play is suitable for a mature audience as certain scenes are shocking.
Taking part in this production are Larissa Bonaci as Salomé, Mario Micallef as Herod Antipas, Nathalie Micallef as Herodias and Alan Fenech as Jokanaan.
• Salomé is being staged at St James Cavalier on January 11,12 18 and19 at 8pm. Tickets may be obtained by phoning 2122 3200 or online from www.sjcav.org.