Talk:Salome (play)

Variations and Premieres
According to the Penguin edition of Salome, the first London premiere was actually in 1905. I have added one sentence complete with the relevant citation to reflect this fact. --Justificatus (talk) 12:39, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Timing and language of the play
Something smells : From reading various short pieces on Oscar Wilde (in French, nothing I remember precisely enough to quote), I had come to the understanding that Salomé had been originally written in French (as attested to by it being mentioned that it was Lord Alfred Douglas who translated it in English. Now, why would wilde have done this? : until his trial and imprisonment, he was the darling of good society throughout the united kingdom, so his natural audience would have been british, and not everybody would have been as fluent in French as he was, not to mention the trouble of finding players able to act in French. So my source stated, which I found perfectly logical, that the play was written after he was released and emigrated to Paris, likely late in 1897.

This story of the play having been written in French (why?) and even rehearsed in 1891, but the première forbidden, only to be translated, and published as a literary work 3 years later does not add up. Neither does a Paris production in 1896 add up : at the time, producing a new play without collaboration from the author ould have been nearly unthinkable, as it constituted an artistic and social faux pas, and wilde was in jail at the time.

would anybody have additional data or sources to either confirm or infirm this version? --Svartalf 01:02, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm writing about the play in my dissertation right now, so I can provide a few answers:

As to why Wilde would have written in French, I think it likely that it was an artistic statement. Around the time that he decided to write his version of the Salomé story down, he stayed in France, where he met members of the French and Belgian artistic avant-garde (Mallarmé, Maeterlinck, Verlaine...). The British stage was very conservative at that time, and to make money Wilde had to work within a tradition, as he did with "Lady Windermere's Fan". Writing "Salomé" in French was a way of breaking free from the constraints of the British stage. He also loved the French language. Plus, the French stage doesn't appear to have been officially censored.

As for players who could act in French: the actress who was going to stage it in London was Sarah Bernhardt. She was French, and even when she toured in Britain or the States, it was with French-language productions!

In fact it is likely that Wilde never dared count on the play actually getting staged. He wrote it in French in late 1891, early 1892, and though it wasn't published in book form till early 1893, there is an extant proof copy dating from July 1892 - very close to the refusal of the licence (Josephine Guy & Ian Small, "Oscar Wilde's Profession", OUP 2000, pp. 112-3). Normally Wilde didn't start to think about publishing until well after a play's performance (at least that's how things went with the society comedies).

Wilde was very happy about the 1896 production of his play. It's true that he couldn't be there to supervise it, but he writes in "De Profundis" that he was very touched because it meant he hadn't been forgotten as an artist. He considered the production a tribute, and the thought perked him up while he was in prison.

--Ms.ampersand 21:45, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

First English performance

Hi! I just made an edit relating to the first performnce in England. I initially made a further edit about the Strauss opera as I'd missed the more detailed reference to this further down. Apologies - this is my first edit ever so please be patient! Please also feel free to correct me as necessary.

Campanula (talk) 17:26, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

New template
I have just created Salomé. I am unsure if Salome (1953 film), Salomé (1918 film), Salomé (2002 film) and/or Salomé (telenovela) belong in the template. I will be adding the new template later tonight. I am still trying to figure out if I have everything.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 14:25, 14 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Help edit the template if you understand the issues, I am not following this page. Ping me if you need me.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 14:57, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

Location of first performance
This primary source should tidy up the rather messy hedging around it - a review by Achille Segard of the performance clearly entitled 'at the Theatre de l'Oeuvre' - it is unlikely it would have been performed at the bigger Comedie Francaise theatre given the political and legal ramifications. Segard's theatre was a small private theatre and thus he was able to get past legal threats to ban the performance. For further info, see Tydeman and Price's book on the play.86.146.145.195 (talk) 10:28, 14 June 2015 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure if this should go in anywhere as a first performance, but it's on record that the (very) young Clive Barker presented a production of the play at school. This would, I imagine, have been sometime in the late 1960s or early 70s - Lindsay Kemp, eat your heart out!
 * Nuttyskin (talk) 20:08, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

External links modified
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Clean-up?
The article has been tagged for clean-up for some time. Would any interested editor have any objection to my giving the article the once-over, removing uncited material and standardising the referencing?  Tim riley  talk   18:12, 2 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Now done. The editor who tagged the article noted "reads like a high-school essay", which is shrewd: the sections in question were added on 24 March 2014 by three editors who had not edited Wikipedia before and have not edited since – classic school assignment stuff. But as the material is relevant and decently cited I have moved it to a spin-off article where those who wish to can still see it without it clogging up the main article which now deals with the history, plot and reception of the play. Further improvements most welcome, naturally.  Tim riley  talk   08:30, 8 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Much improved. I've re-assessed at B-class. -- Ssilvers (talk) 23:23, 8 April 2021 (UTC)