Salomania

Award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson returns to Aurora to direct this World Premiere, specially commissioned by Aurora for its 20th anniversary season. Salomania was inspired by Oscar Wilde’s fascinating and sensual play, Salome, which Jackson directed at Aurora to rave reviews in 2006. Based on the extraordinary story of dancer Maud Allan, a San Francisco native who took Europe by storm in the early 1900’s with her version of the “Dance of the Seven Veils.” She became notoriously known as “The Salomé Dancer,” and was unexpectedly fraught with a lawsuit that destroyed her career. Whereas Salome was Oscar Wilde’s wild take on the infamous Biblical temptress, Salomania uses Allan’s story as a framework to explore themes of media sensationalism, freedom of expression and wartime hysteria – themes as relevant today as they were a century ago.