1.31°C Paul T. Davies reviews Empty Souls – Underluminal’s Salome, staged at Firstsite.
It’s a welcome return to Colchester for Italian based company Underluminal, whose previous work has included Let’s Try Gay and The Last King of Porn. Taking Salome as a source and referencing both the Oscar Wilde and Steven Berkoff versions, the company use it as a basis to explore sexuality and power in the creative industry. Paris, 2025. The Société de Théâtre des Coquins, a performance theatre company, stages the two-hundredth and final performance of its Salome. They then decide to stay in the theatre to celebrate the last performance all together: drinking, dancing and having fun. However, the situation soon moves from being funny and carefree to anxiety inducing, and as the night progresses, the relationships between them crumble in a spiral of violence.
Created by the company without a dramaturgy, the company give passionate, detailed performances. There’s a wonderful coup ten minutes in when the show appears to be finished, but this is the conclusion of Salome. The destruction of the company then begins as the director, and performers reveal their manipulative selves. The Dance of the Seven Veils is performed at the beginning of the play, and then, very interestingly, performed in the modern era, a Dance of the Seven Veils of Celebrity, which is then stripped away as cancel culture takes over.
It’s an intelligent, engaging piece. Although there were some technical issues during the first performance, the company’s commitment did not falter. It is unfair to select any member of the company for praise as Silvia Belluschi, Claudia Campani, Alessandro Davoli, Carlo Gariboldi, Alessandro Onorato, and Alessandra Viganò work so well as a company.
