NEWS grote Ledwidge
KIM MOGA (left) anc Leah Baric nerform a scene from Oscar
Wilde’s Salome. Wilde’s classic is based on the New Testament
story in which Herod is beguiled into giving up the head of John
the Baptist. The play, presented by Theatre \West Van and
directed by Egon Steineback and Dorothy Jenkins, runs until
Bec. 4 at Presentation House.

Wilde thing

Salome, by Oscar Wilde, directed by Egon Steinebach and
Dorothy Jenkins. A Theatre West Van production at Presentation
House, 333 Chesterfield Ave., North Vancouver, to Dec. 5. Res-
ervations: 983-2995. Recommended for mature audiences.

t's the spring of 1892. Oscar Wilde is discussing the
staging of Salome with his stage designer Charles
Ricketts and Graham Robertson the artist.

Ricketts wants the maon, the
dominant symbol of the play, to
remain unseen while Wilde insists
ona “strange dim pattern in the
sky.”

Robertson suggests a violet sky
and Wilde responds, “Yes, |
never thought of that. Certainly a
violet sky and then, in place of an
orchestra, braziers of perfume.

“Think! The scented clouds ris-
ing and partly veiling the stage
from time to time; a new perfume
for each emotion.”

Unfortunately Robertson had to
point out to Wilde that the theatre
could not be aired out between
emotions — a situation that has a
certain paratiel exactly 100 years
later in Presentation louse.

Wilde’s excitement at the possi-
bility of tangibly supporting in the
theatre the sensual excess of his
drama is important.

In The Picture Of Dorian Gray.
Wiide writes that “Nothing can
cure the soul but the senses just as
nothing can cure the senses but
the soul.”

In, Salome, Wilde's Hered (an
amalgam of Herod Antipas, Herod
the Great and Herod Agrippa 1} is
caught by this apparent
dichotomy.

Afraid of lokanaan, who he
believes to be a holy man who has
seen the face of God, Herod is
also afraid for his own soul after a
lifetime of sensuai gratification.

lokanaan is imprisoned under-
ground in a living grave, yet out of
sight is not Gut of mind. As always.

Martin Millerchip
THEATRE REVIEW

fears not confronted grow larger
(lokanaan’s voice and prophecies
are amplified by the empty cistern
that is his cell} and require bigger
distractions.

ta this instance it is Salome, his
virgin daughter by marriage to his
brother's wite.

And Herod promises “What-
soever thou shalt ask of me” in
return for Salome’s ritual dance of
seduction.

But while fife has wearied
Herod, Salome has yet to learn the
sorrow of satiation. ;

“Her lips disclose the cruelty of
her soul. Her lust must needs be
infinite and her perversity without
limit,” said Wilde.

Indeed. Salome must reach into
the grave to consumate her kiss,
her climax.

Saiome is a supreme challenge
ta any company, let alone a
community group with limited
resources, yet Theatre West Van

See Much page 32

Harbour Centre sponsors Picasso lecture

CURATOR JEAN
Sutherland Boggs will
discuss the Paris exhib-
ition, Picasso and
Things. a retrospective
of the artist's — still-lite

works tomorrow even-
ing in| room
SFU’s Harbour Centre.

The free lecture is pres-
ented by West) Vancouver's
Contemporary Art Society and
begins at 7:30 p.m.

1900 of

Boggs is a former director of
the National Gallery of
Canada. A graduate of the
University ot Toronto. she
became the tiest woman
director of the Philadelphia
Museum of Art in 7978.

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