Salome @ Greenside

 

When Oscar Wilde returned to his home in Paris to write Salome after a series of discussions with his friends about previous settings of this biblical tragedy, how could he have imagined that a hundred years later it would be stylised in Chinese Folk Dance, with a derived libretto in Chinese?

 

Wang Wei Cheng, actor, and director Philip Chan graduated from The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, and were supported by their government to perform for us at the Edinburgh Fringe. In their own tongue, they dress Oscar Wilde's tale of love, heartbreak, revenge and woe. Salome, rejected by Jokanaan, demands his head on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the dance of the seven veils to her stepfather, Herod Antipas, only to realise all too late that a disembodied head is not sufficient to mend a broken heart.

 

Wang Wei Cheng tells the story, assuming all roles, communicating through dance, monologue, and heart-wrenching facial expression. The show is accompanied by some Korean percussion, particularly salient as Salome demands the head of Jokanaan again and again, despite the desperate pleas to reconsider and recant from King Herod. In this climatic scene in particular, one actor telling both sides really thrills and chills.

 

Occasionally the subtitles distract from the action on the stage or could benefit from a spell-check, but Wang Wei's smooth flowing motions never fail to dazzle, as he tools himself in costumes with ribbons, parasols and other dance partners to accentuate his physical theatricality.