Theatre Review: Salome

November, 2007

What happens when a legendary artist from magazines, films and television meets an aspiring theatre director? In this case, the result is Salome by Oscar Wilde -set in a fetish club and crammed into the unspectacular surrounds of a small pub theatre in north London.

When Salome was first written in 1894 it was immediately banned and Wilde vilified for his decadence and depravity. Over a hundred years later it hardly raises an eyebrow…

Many attempts have been made to resurrect Salome from the depths of our supposed enlightened indifference to sex and exposed body parts, but none ever really pay off. It’s a hard piece to successfully stage and the pitfalls are treacherous. Most companies make the error of spiralling into outright farce and slapstick or, perhaps even worse, stage a tragedy of Greek proportions that totally misses Wilde’s prime objective: to poke fun at the hypocrisy of the era he had to contend with.

Enter Andy McQuade, co-founder of controversial theatre company Act Provocateur International, now setting up his own theatre project Second Skin and currently wowing audiences with his unbridled and exuberant spin on this mythical tale.

Upon taking my seat I was surprised that people even bothered going to places like this. The theatre had obviously seen better days -the chairs were worn, the walls in need of some love and paint, but the curtain that billowed in front of me hinted that all may yet be redeemed.

As the curtain rose, the atmospheric lighting and haunting music swirled around a set that appeared to have been dragged from a Persian fairytale -an array of colours, fabrics and Eastern artefacts. The sheer sensuality of every inch of the stage suggests that Wilde himself has directed. The set design is unmatched, with Chris Achilleos, legendary fantasy artist, teaming with Alyona Zadoya to create a world where time stands still, where the classic and futuristic collide and flow seamlessly into an atmosphere of decadent opulence.

Nika Khitrova as Salome is a Beverly Hills siren: bimbo and schemer in one dazzling package who lures and entices not just Herod but the whole audience, before demolishing all with a final, moving and hypnotic, monologue. Caroline Colomei’s Herodius comes off as a startling ice-maiden who cackles a laugh that sends splinters into Herod’s every misguided antic. This is an ensemble who watch and wait with precision focus, never missing a beat.

Above all of this stands Patrick Doherty as Herod. A tour de force performance that to describe him as comical, tragic, desperate and worthy of our deepest sympathy is to go nowhere close. Doherty effortlessly combines moments of comic genius and self-pitying sensitivity with more than a nod to Wilde himself. As he launches into his final closing monologue, so close to the audience one can glimpse the level of despair into which he has sunk, one is reminded that here is a man of mere flesh and blood, deeply imperfect, truly human.

Highly recommended…

You can see Salome at The Lion and Unicorn until November 18

Mark Lowe, MyVillage, 12th November