His protagonist is similarly ambiguous and impossible to pigeonhole. “Each man kills the thing he loves,” wrote Wilde in his last poem. The closing bloody command for which Salome is famous seems to be an act of seizing agency, grasping independence – albeit both destructive and self-destructive. She finds it in her impossible love for the prophet. In the extremely materialistic world she inhabits, the titular Salome searches for spiritual direction to give meaning to life. In the palace, inertia and total decision-making paralysis reign, a sad banquet is underway, where the criminal king, who is increasingly divorced from reality, grapples with his spirits. On the streets, frustration and confusion are running amok some demand the blasphemer be punished, others want their holy leader released.

One apostle of the new religion is the prophet Jokanaan, a prisoner of King Herod. The most radical movement is being born beyond the palace walls, demanding the overthrow of the old order. Religious factions are warring in Herod’s kingdom, each of which is fervently defending its vision of the world, its values and god. Oscar Wilde used a bible story to render a sense of the end of the world and the disquieting gender transformations of the late nineteenth century.

Salome wild