Salome

Tickets
Address ul. Starowiślna 21, Kraków
Entry 50–80 PLN
Venue's website www.stary.pl…
Length 90 min
Director Kuba Kowalski
Release 2022
Author Oscar Wilde

Performing: Aleksandra Nowosadko, Anna Radwan, Michał Balicki, Juliusz Chrząstowski, Mikołaj Kubacki, Stanisław Linowski, Przemysław Przestrzelski, Łukasz Szczepanowski, Michał Iwaszkiewicz

A production of Oscar Wilde's Salome directed by Kuba Kowalski.


Oscar Wilde used a Biblical story to render a sense of the end of the world and the disquieting gender transformations of the late nineteenth century. Religious factions are warring in Herod’s kingdom, each of which is fervently defending its vision of the world, its values and god. The most radical movement is being born beyond the palace walls, demanding the overthrow of the old order. One apostle of the new religion is the prophet Jokanaan, a prisoner of King Herod. On the streets, frustration and confusion are running amok; some demand the blasphemer be punished, others want their holy leader released. 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.

In the extremely materialistic world she inhabits, the titular Salome searches for spiritual direction to give meaning to life. She finds it in her impossible love for the prophet. 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. Each man kills the thing he loves, wrote Wilde in his last poem. His protagonist is similarly ambiguous and impossible to pigeonhole. Wilde’s drama resonates disturbingly in our own times, in our contemporary world touched by the pandemics of disinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories, divided into tribes condemned to misunderstandings, whose views have become a question of faith, not reason.

translation: Antoni Libera set and costume design: Kornelia Dzikowska
music: Lubomir Grzelak
music performed by: Natan Kryszk, Lubomir Grzelak, Marcin Fedorow
choreography: Szymon Dobosik
lights: Damian Pawella
director's assistant: Stanisław Chludziński
stage manager, prompter: Hanna Nowak

This performance will be presented in Polish with no surtitles.

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