Salome's Last Dance (1988) poster process

I really do hope I get to see a Salome production live one day, it's always been a very high item on my bucket list. For now I have to settle for watching nearly every available adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play set to Strauss, or rather adaptations based off his revolutionary reimagining of Salome (the biblical figure) who used to not even have a name nor any agency in her tragic tale.

If you're not keen to this infamously lurid story, Salome is about a Jewish princess of the same name, daughter of Herodias who has just married the tetrarch Herod. Her mom is the center of scandal and court gossip, and one of her loudest critics is John the Baptist (or Jokanaan as he's called in the play), who has been imprisoned deep below in a well near the royal court. Salome wanders out from a boring family function one night and hears his doleful prophecies carrying on the wind from his hole in the ground, and is instantly drawn in by his eloquence. She demands the guards let her see him, and when she finally does see him, she falls head over heels. Mostly, she just wants to kiss him, but Jokanaan is like "begone, wench!" and refuses no matter how much he effusively showers him with praises while simultaneously hailing him with insults. She goes back to the party, where her stepfather (who has been lusting after her for a while now) demands that she dance for him. She refuses at first, until she makes him promise that he'll give her anything she wants as a reward afterward.

Thus follows the Dance of the Seven Veils, which has been depicted varyingly in different adaptations as either involving literal veils on her person being discarded one-by-one, or metaphorically to represent the "shedding of her virtues" or whatever they tend to say. In the 2017 Amsterdam production, she is in a simple white slip dress dancing barefoot in front of a party of modern-day businessmen; in the 2019 Sydney production a handful of actresses are swapped out for each veil-drop to carry out fantasy after fantasy. Marilyn Monroe, pole-dance, nuns and maids, little girls. That's what Salome is to Herod after all, just a sweet little fantasy.

Fantasy turns to nightmare however when she leans into his ear and announces she would like her reward to be the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter. Herod balks at this, worrying it will bring about bad fortune to execute a prophet, but the queen Herodias is all, "that's my girl!" Can you believe that in the original tale, this used to all be Herodias' scheme and not her daughter's horny whim?

Here's to Wilde for giving us one of the most lustful murderesses to exist in the public imagination, depicted over and over again in all her bloodied triumph and derangement. Without him, we wouldn't have this gloriously gory final act with Salome kissing John's decapitated head and moaning with ecstasy and regret. For this display, Herod calls for her swift execution and she is promptly speared to death by the guards. Gay icon.

Much light,

Casper

P.S.: Salome's Last Dance (1988) has an unforgettable performance in it by Imogen Millais-Scott, who was going blind during production. Best eye-acting I've ever seen (video below) and probably the best reason to watch the film. The film has the sort of over-the-top orientalist costuming a la Leon Bakst that I find sort of acceptable in this context because the "play" is being performed in a brothel and the farcical aspect is dialed up to eleven.

https://youtu.be/mpDtdSVuED4?si=ju4dsL_wjSWRg2_o

P.S.S: If you want my definitive Salome experience, watch Maria Ewing's portrayal of the character from 1992.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v42vY5geyZ8