Oscar Wilde Retried in Mark Jackson’s Documentary Trial Play Salomania

Oscar Wilde Retried in Mark Jackson’s Documentary Trial Play Salomania

This paperexamines Mark Jackson’s Salomania, a 2012 stage representation of the1918 libel trial by a Canadian dancer, Maud Allan, against the BritishMember of Parliament, Noel Pemberton Billing. Jackson’s play issignificant not only as an important addition to the documentary trialplays, but also as a further contribution to the dramatic literature aboutthe trials of Oscar Wilde, with which it creates an indirect dialog. Thetheatrical and social background of the trial is considered first, in orderto gain an understanding of the context, the characters, and the issuesinvolved. As with Wilde’s trials, Allan’s attempt to clear her name wasoverturned by allegations of sexual perversity, in the “trial of thecentury,” which revealed mismanagement of the British legal system andthe absurdity of attempts to make art legally accountable. The ensuingcourtroom drama is reconstructed by Jackson by taking selections from contemporary court transcripts. Salomania probes the roots of Victorian,Edwardian, and (by implication) contemporary society, questioning howprejudice, homophobia, and xenophobia can occur in the courtroom of acivilized society. Jackson offers little commentary of his own on theissue, but makes his point by juxtaposing the horrors of trench warfarein World War I with this concurrent travesty of justice on the homefront. In showing Wilde and Allan as sacrificial victims of cultural, legal,and homophobic hysteria, Salomania offers a timeless culturalinvestigation into the relationship between art, law, and society.