"Salome" is a 1968 Australian TV play starring Frank Thring. It was based on the 1891

play of the same name Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

and was reportedly the first time that play had been adapted for television.

Cast

Frank Thring Francis William Thring (11 May 1926 – 29 December 1994) was an Australian character actor in radio, stage, television and film; as well as a theatre director. His early career started in London in theatre productions, before he starred in Ho ...

as Herod * Buster Skeggs as Salome *

Fred Parslow Frederick Henry Parslow (14 August 1932 – 26 January 2017) was an Australian actor, who appeared in film, television and theatre. Acting career Parslow was notable in several film and TV roles, with parts in internationally successful TV so ...

as Jokanaan *

Monica Maughan Monica Cresswell Maughan (née Wood, 15 September 1933 – 8 January 2010) was an Australian actor with roles in theatre, radio, television, film and ballet over a career spanning 52 years. Early life and education She was born Monica Cresswell ...

as Herodias * David Foster as a young Syrian

Production

Thring had performed in productions of the play on stage numerous times - indeed it was a performance of ''Salome'' in England in 1954 that established his reputation over there. Trevor Ling designed the production from drawings done by

Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (21 August 187216 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His black ink drawings were influenced by Woodblock printing in Japan, Japanese woodcuts, and depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He ...

. The production was announced in July 1967 and taped in December of that year.

Reception

The ''Sydney Morning Herald'' said the production "did not make sense" in part because "of sexual passion and conflict there was no trace" saying Thring "was the only player to move and speak with conviction and control." ''The Age'' said "it was more music hall than melodrama" with "Miss Skeggs was splendid" and "Thring's Herod had everything to recommend it."

References

1968 television plays 1968 Australian television episodes 1960s Australian television plays Wednesday Theatre (season 4) episodes {{tv-episode-stub