Narraboth    Mark Le Brocq
Page         Ethna Robinson
Soldiers     Mark Richardson, Graeme Danby
Jokanaan     Matthew Best
Cappadocian  Roger Begley
Salome       Vivian Tierney
Mannassah    Sara McGuinness
Herod        John Graham-Hall
Herodias     Elizabeth Vaughan
Jews         Jeffrey Stewart, Andrew Forbes-Lane, Mark Le Brocq, Richard
             Roberts, Jeremy White
Nazarenes    Mark Beesley, David Kempster

Conductor    David Atherton
Director     David Levaux

This production, from 1996, is set roughly at the time Salome was written,
1905. Instead of pseudo-historical Palestinian costumes, there are
orientializing Viennese costumes for the women and pages, and evening
dress, military uniform, Hasidic dress or everyday clothes as appropriate.
The set is dark grey, with a free-standing wall up which people variously
climb, and a window into Herod's dining room at the back. There is a swing
on the right on which a Nazarene girl plays intermittently, but almost
invisibly. Jokanaan's cell has a door with a grating flat in the stage,
over which Salome stands Seven-year-itch style (but much less wholesomely)
during Jokanaan's first extended tirade.

The Nazarenes are on stage throughout, "outside" the wall when not
involved, and the Jews remain on stage once they arrive, until everybody
except the Herods leave when Jokanaan's head appears. There is a strong
sense of everyone putting on a show, not just Salome. This is enhanced by
the frequent use of spots, including hand-held spots used like torches.

On the whole it worked quite well. I missed a serious sense of sleaze. Chez
Herod was more like an uncomfortable sitcom household, with father lazy,
sensual and generally out of it, mother a pretentious if elegant old boot
and grown-up stepdaughter prone to foot-stamping tantrums. The dance was
exciting rather than vulgar, interestingly, and the waltzes seemed a bit
too jolly, not indulgent enough. But there was a fair dramatic tension, and
the overall effect was understated (apart from the gory head itself) rather
than limp.

Vivian Tierney was definitely not a teenager, but as usual put herself
completely into the role, and was completely convincing as a wide-eyed
young woman taken over by a physical obsession that throws her about
between sullen interludes. She sang a few bat-squeaks early on, but seemed
to warm up into a full-voiced flow. I'm not sure that she was very loud,
though. (A kind man whose wife was ill gave me a front stalls seat! I
usually know whether someone is loud enough in the Coliseum or not...) Her
dance was expressive but not particularly erotic and turned into another
hysterical fit. She kissed the Page at one point in it, extending the
parallel between their obsessions from the first scene. She was killed with
the same dagger as Narraboth used on himself.

Elizabeth Vaughan was grand and throaty as Herodias, and John Graham-Hall
was uncharacteristically (presumably deliberately) unsubstantial as Herod.
Matthew Best was loud, perhaps amplified, and rough as Jokanaan. There was
an unfortunate co-incidence in the translation -- Salome's first words
after his initial singing on stage are "He's terrible. He's completely
terrible."

Mark Le Brocq was dashing, with a bright tone, as Narraboth.

The ensemble roles were all pretty well done. The Hasids collapsing into a
doctrinal squabble were very funny, and the Nazarenes were quite moving.

I give up. What's a heckelphone?