Salome - new production from CP Theatre 

In choosing the next two productions in our Goths, Ghosts and Ghouls Season we’ve paired the Wilde classic Salome, featuring the thoroughly ghoulish trading of the freshly severed head of John the Baptist for the biblical equivalent of a lap dance, with a selection of new writing focusing on the spooky, the ghostly and the supernaturally strange in New Writing 2012.

However, a deathly premise isn’t the only thing these works share: two of the new writing pieces feature same sex couples, another has a gay context and there is an analysis of Salome, with its mix of transgressive relationships and unrequited desire, as an allegory of Wilde’s own sexuality. While it wasn’t a conscious objective when this part of the season was being programmed, we do seem to have added a fourth ‘G’ which in turn adds another layer to what is already a strong and provocative fortnight of theatre.