Becoming Salome

Videoperformance
Victoria Theater| Berlin and Singapore | 2022

‘How do we express ourselves, and remain free, during the challenging restrictions of the pandemic? As our bodies are locked down, can we find the imaginative freedom to roam the wildest fantasies in our apartment? This was the beginning of the project to transform my apartment in Berlin into the world of SALOME. Two, juxtapose that with a live performer in Singapore. Three, harness social media as the site of performance which have long superseded our theatre buildings. It’s necessary to assert performance with the limited resources available, as we become debilitated by regulations and our theatres continue to be under threat. The rest as they say is history. We know we are now in a new world of reimposed barriers, in a precarious future where we are struggling to regain our imagination of the possible.’ 

Ong Keng Sen

Salome is a larger-than-life character who has from time immemorial horrified and fascinated all. Who is SALOME in our contemporary times, who attempts to transform their position of no-power into some kind of power?

Based on English playwright Oscar Wilde’s symbolist play from 1891, SALOME fights to be free from the systems of morality and patriarchal power which have imprisoned them. Salome stoked both controversy and acclaim when it was first performed – and today, Ong’s SALOME strikes a provocative and ferocious double portrait of individuals unafraid to pursue their deepest instincts to become emancipated.

A T:>WORKS (Singapore) production
With the text of Oscar Wilde

Concept, Text and Direction Ong Keng Sen
Performance Michael(a) Daoud and Bolbola
Cinematography and Editing Camille Lacadee
Artistic Direction Shahrzad Rahmani
Associate Art Directon Alice Faucher 
Sound Design Kaffe Matthews
Sound Editor Gabor Csongradi
Lighting Design Joseph Wegmann

Photo © Ceren Saner | © Camille Lacadee