Abstract
Chapter 2 discusses the ways in which Salome sees and shows. I venture to say that Salome exhibits a Brechtian turn in Wilde. Instead of just inviting the audience to consider what they would have done if they were in Salome’s position, Wilde seems to ask himself: How would I have written this play if I were part of this society? Wilde repositions the storyteller like a Brechtian actor. Salome, then, is a historically relative adaptation meant to alienate not only the audience but also the writer himself. This chapter, ultimately, discusses Wilde’s many translations, some literal and some metaphorical, of Salome and how these layers of translation lead to alienation.
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Notes
Kohl, Oscar Wilde, 193.
Ibid.
Tillis, “The Actor Occluded,” 109.
Quigley, “Realism and Symbolism in Oscar Wilde’s Salomé,” 108.
Donohue, “Salome and the Wildean Art of Symbolist Theatre,” 86.
Wilde, “Salome,” Oscar Wilde, 66.
Ibid. 75.
Ibid. 70.
“Penumbra,” The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
Wilde, “Salome,” 77.
This information is from Joseph Donohue’s personal notes on the Rosenbach Salome, 1.2v.
Wilde, “Salome,” 91.
Ibid.
McAuley, Space in Performance, 98.
Ibid. 68.
“Stay,” Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. 1989.
Wilde, “Salome,” 72.
Ibid. 85.
Ibid. 91.
Ibid.
Kohl, Oscar Wilde, 186.
Donohue, “Salome and the Wildean Art of Symbolist Theatre,” 84.
Brecht, Brecht on Theatre,, 190.
Wilde, Complete Letters, 197.
Ibid. 199.
Brecht, Brecht on Theatre, 192.
I found Steven Swann Jones’ introduction in his book, The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of Imagination, particularly helpful in categorizing the genres within folk narratives.
Kohl, Oscar Wilde, 52.
Zipes, Fairy Tale as Myth, 4.
Ibid. 6.
Ibid. 9.
Ibid. 10.
Ibid. 9.
Wilde, “Salome,” 72.
Ibid. 71.
Ibid. 73.
I. King’s Hall, 1906 Although the King’s Hall production of Salome in Covent Garden, London in 1906 could not, of course, have predicted Brecht’s aesthetic manifestos for the theatre, the review by Max Meyerfield reads as though this was a self-declared Brechtian production of Salome: “The stage was left ridiculously bare, and never for a moment produced the illusion of the terrace outside of Herod’s banqueting hall … the Dance of the Seven Veils was executed with all of the propriety of a British governess” (Tanitch, Oscar Wilde on Stage and Screen, 144). Why had the director, C. S. Ricketts, opted for a stage like this? Richard Allen Cave’s comments about this performance are insightful: “[Rickett’s] objective seems always to bring an audience into an enhanced awareness of the inner dynamics of the action which constitute the subject … subtle use of design to shape an audience’s sensitivity of response” (“Wilde Designs,” 179). Cave goes on to explain that Brecht was exploring similar territory to that of Ricketts (181).
II. Royal Opera House, 1949 Although this was not the first production of Richard Strauss’s Salome—which premiered in Dresden in 1905—this production in London may have been one of the more alienating performances, given the designer: Salvador Dali. “Salvador Dali provided a background of gigantic peacock feathers, yards and yards of scarlet nylon net, huge spiked shields. Herodias could barely move inside her head-dress and collar. The designs caused an uproar” (Tanitch, Oscar Wilde on Stage and Screen, 165). Certainly, these designs ensured that this production could not be a “slice of life.” Instead the imaginary world created a Brechtian dream: “The one important point for the spectators in these houses is that they should be able to swap a contradictory world for a consistent one, one that they scarcely know for one of which they can dream” (Brecht, Brecht on Theatre, 188). Furthermore, as the director, Peter Brook, noted: “The aim is a musical one. This Salome is designed much more for singers” (Tanitch, Oscar Wilde on Stage and Screen, 174). For Brecht, “… music can make its point in a number of ways and with full independence, and can react in its own manner to the subjects dealt with; at the same time it can also quite simply help to lend variety to the entertainment” (Brecht, Brecht on Theatre, 203). Oscar Wilde’s play lent itself beautifully to an adaptation for opera.
III. Paris, 1973 In his “A Short Organum for the Theatre,” Brecht discusses another acting method (previously unmentioned in this article) for alienating the audience: “If the part is played by somebody of the opposite sex the sex of the character will be more clearly brought out; if it is played by a comedian, whether comically or tragically, it will gain fresh aspects” (Brecht, Brecht on Theatre, 197). This all-male production in 1973 in Paris accomplished this very feat.
IV. City Centre Theatre, 1985 Presented by the Ballet of the 20th Century, this adaptation into ballet of Salome in New York was best described by Patrick Dupond (who played Salome) in an interview: “Seduction is pushed until destruction. It is inspired by Kabuki and Oscar Wilde. I have to act as much as I dance. I’m not a boy or a girl but in between. It’s very strange and very tricky” (Tanitch, Oscar Wilde on Stage and Screen, 180, my emphasis). Here we revisit the idea of liminality. This portrayal of Salome makes the character indefinite and highlights the same impossibility of acting that puppetry demonstrates. In addition, the Asiatic quality of the performance (its Kabuki inspiration) fits well with Brechtian theatre.
V. The Gate Theatre, 1988 Richard Alan Cave wrote with great insight about Steven Berkhoff’s Salome, which first premiered at The Gate Theatre in Dublin in 1988, was transferred to the Royal National Theatre in London (1989), then played at the Edinburgh Festival (1989) and subsequently at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina (1990). In the 1989 production at the Royal National Theatre in London, Steven Berkhoff played Herod. Cave writes this about Berkhoff’s production
This was not costume drama or biblical spectacle, nor was it a sensational indulgence in kinky sexuality (there was no sensationalism of any kind: even Salome’s dance was a mimed striptease in which no clothes were actually removed). Berkhoff showed Salome to be a political play with a rigorous metaphysical edge to its satirical intent. To do this, he relentlessly subverted all possible expectations an audience might bring to the performance, established through revivals over the last two decades … and a consequence of this was that Berkhoff restored to the play its considerable subversive potential. (Cave, “Wilde Designs,” 182–183)
With Berkhoff’s production, Salome has become a play that does not follow Wilde’s dictum of “art for art’s sake,” but instead can be read as a subversively political play. Furthermore, the act of miming the removal of Salome’s clothes constitutes a Brechtian showing: there is an obvious transparency in this production between acting and action.
Tanitch, Oscar Wilde on Stage and Screen, 180.
Ian Andrew MacDonald, “Oscar Wilde as a French Writer, 4.
Ibid.
Ibid. 6.
Ibid. 17.
Ibid.
Ellmann, Oscar Wilde at Oxford, 12.
Matt. 14:3 For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison, for the sake of Hero’di-as, his brother Philip’s wife; 14:4 because John said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 14:5 And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. 14:6 But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Hero’di-as danced before the company, and pleased Herod, 14:7 so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 14:8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” 14:9 And the king was sorry; but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given; 14:10 he sent and had John beheaded in the prison, 14:11 and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 14:12 And his disciples came and took the body and buried it; and they went and told Jesus.
Mark 6:17 For Herod had sent and seized John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Hero’di-as, his brother Philip’s wife; because he had married her. 6:18 For John said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 6:19 And Hero’di-as had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 6:20 For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he was much perplexed; and yet he heard him gladly. 6:21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and the leading men of Galilee. 6:22 For when Hero’di-as’ daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will grant it.” 6:23 And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” 6:24 And she went out, and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the baptizer.” 6:25 And she came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 6:26 And the king was exceedingly sorry; but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 6:27 And immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard and gave orders to bring his head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, 6:28 And brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. 6:29 When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
Ellmann, Oscar Wilde, 84.
Nassaar, “Pater in Wilde’s The Happy Prince and Other Tales and A House of Pomegranates,” 142.
A. Murray, “Acquiescing into a Facile Orthodoxy? 326.
See de Vries, “Intertextuality and Intermediality,” 235–255.
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© 2013 Michael Y. Bennett
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Bennett, M.Y. (2013). Salome’s Tale—Iokanaan’s Telling—Wilde’s Retelling: Historical Relativity and (Un)specificity in Wilde’s Salome. In: Narrating the Past through Theatre: Four Crucial Texts. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137275424_3
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