Salome

Written by Oscar Wilde

Narrated by James Marsters, Matthew Wolf and Multiple Narrators

A dark tale of hubris, lust, and self-destruction … as told by a man who famously fell prey to those same impulses in his own life. Oscar Wilde wrote his original interpretation of the Biblical story of Salomé in French, and the play was so controversial that no theatre in England would produce it for nearly four decades.

Includes a conversation with director Michael Hackett and Wilde scholar David Rodes.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast production starring:

Rosalind Ayres as Herodias

James Marsters as Iokanaan

Andre Sogliuzzo as The Young Syrian and others

Kate Steele as Salomé

John Vickery as Herod

Matthew Wolf as Page of Herodias and others

Music by Djivan Gasparyan and Lian Ensemble. Directed by Michael Hackett. Recorded by L.A. Theatre Works before a live audience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L.A. Theatre Works
• Release date: Mar 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781580819541

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was a Dublin-born poet and playwright who studied at the Portora Royal School, before attending Trinity College and Magdalen College, Oxford. The son of two writers, Wilde grew up in an intellectual environment. As a young man, his poetry appeared in various periodicals including Dublin University Magazine. In 1881, he published his first book Poems, an expansive collection of his earlier works. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was released in 1890 followed by the acclaimed plays Lady Windermere’s Fan (1893) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

Reviews for Salome

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A haunting story based on a few short bible versus this play was the base of the opera. Libretto is almost identical. Excellent preparation if u plan to see the opera

[marklacy-355086 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Curious, more than anything else, what Wilde's play would be like. Thankfully it was a quick read. I can see why Wilde received a lot of notoriety about the play, but I don't understand why anyone would consider this good literature. Certain characters keep repeating the same lines, as if they can't remember what they were really supposed to say and there's no one to prompt them with the "real" line. The illustrations done for this work are truly bizarre, and did not add anything to the experience.

[pivic-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very well-edited, newly translated three-language edition (French, English, Swedish) of Wilde's quite short and very quickly banned play. The annotations are very good, placing the script in a biblical and historical context, even noting where Wilde, for example, uses phrases in his other works. Not my fave tome by Wilde, but still very readable.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Note to Oscar -- stick to the witty repartee and the mocking of society that is your trademark. I could not sit through this wordy, heavy piece if my life depended on it. The guy who was beheaded was the lucky one.

[versha.bharat · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Salome by Oscar Wilde was a very strange play. The usual witty, humorous dialogs which I expected in his play was totally absent. This actually turned out to be a very depressing book. I could not relate to the protagonist Salome one bit I felt she was an eccentric character. First of all Salome desiring a Baptist was something very odd and on top that she wanted him very badly and then when he rejected her at once she took a very drastic step to get him back which was horrible and disturbing. I am unable to understand what to make out of this play!!

[osbaldistone · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wilde's writing is the center piece of this play about Herod, Salome, and John the Baptist. A fine, quick read, with a very fine introduction by Holbrook Jackson.

[booksfordinner · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Classic retelling of the story of The daughter of Herod and her wish of the Head of John the Baptist for dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils.

[gmillar_8 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I suppose its actually better than this old, twentieth century, South Pacific native could ever appreciate. If it was, indeed, written by Oscar Wilde, it is so different from his Victorian English comedic dramas that I couldn't recognize any threads of sisterhood to them. I love those and I don't love this.