Review: Salome

Well. Salome then. The National Theatre tell us it is:

The tale retold.

The story has been told before, but never like this.

An occupied desert nation. A radical from the wilderness on hunger strike. A girl whose mysterious dance will change the course of the world.

Now, where to start.

This production frustrated me to a pretty extreme degree, but let's deal with the positives first.

Firstly, the acting was brilliant: Isabella Nefar, as Salome so-called, is mesmerising as the still, calm centre of the storm. In fact, the whole cast are strong, and under movement director Ami Shulman's use of slow, dream-like choreography, they seem like a giant, classical artwork come to life.

Secondly, there is the ethereal music. Yasmin Levy and Lubana al Quntar as the 'Women of Song' lend their phenomenal vocals to the whole show. Their contributions are both technically astounding and utterly beautiful.

Thirdly, the design work is also amongst the best I've ever seen. Susan Hilferty, along with lighting designer Tim Lutkin, have created a setting so beautiful it makes the play worth seeing, despite the work's major drawback (which I will come to in a moment). Falling curtains of sand, billowing cloths, props that are used and re-purposed all give the production a properly epic and classical feel (anachronistic weaponry aside). It is a stunning sight.

However, the script.

The script was diabolical. I seriously do not think I've ever seen dialogue that poor in a major production ever. It was just dire. I felt sorry for the actors, who were doing an amazing job with what they had but were playing to a half-empty auditorium. It was embarrassing for everyone involved; I'm not sure how the script passed any kind of quality control. Yaël Farber directs well, but if I were unaware of her previous successes, I would question whether she should be trusted with the writing bit too. As things stand, I think this just has to be written off as a lesson learnt. Hopefully.

Salome is worth seeing for the design, and for the truly haunting music, but the scripting makes it painful. Go to it prepared, but do go to it.

3/5: Could have been perfect. Wasn't.
National Theatre
Until 15th July