On 10 June 1906, a first performance of Oscar Wilde's play Salome took place at the King's Hall in London. The omens were not positive: some actresses refused to play the role, Wilde's name was still linked to scandal, funders were shy, costumes went missing, and newspapers returned their tickets for the first performance and refused to publish photos. But the audience - including W.B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, G.B. Shaw, Max Beerbohm, Eleanore Duse - responded enthusiastically, and Ricketts's stage designs 'surpassed belief'.
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| Charles Ricketts, stage design for Salome (1906) |
Few copies of the printed programme have survived, as is often the case with ephemeral publications of this type. It is therefore with pleasure that we can publish the programme here in full. Collector Steven Halliwell provided the images below. Page 2 is blank - only pages 1 and 3-4 contain text.
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| Programme for Salome and A Florentine Tragedy, London, 10 June 1906 |
(With thanks to Steven Halliwell.)