SALOME

An infamous teen femme fatale tells her side of this familiar New Testament story of desire and death. Raised in Rome as the only child of Jewish nobility, 14-year-old Salome loves dancing and hopes to become a priestess of Diana. Everything changes when her spoiled, scheming mother, Herodias, ditches her husband to marry her brother-in-law, Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee. Transported to the land of her ancestors, Salome becomes embroiled in the political intrigue created by a popular Jewish prophet, John the Baptizer, who preaches repentance to the poor and accuses Herod of breaking Jewish law by marrying his brother’s wife. Threatened by the Baptizer as well as Herod’s growing attraction to Salome, Herodias manipulates the innocent Salome to demand John’s beheading after beguiling Herod with her seductive dancing. How Salome accepts responsibility for her tragic actions and transforms her own life by following the message of the man she has killed gives her a modern relevancy far beyond her Biblical antecedent. A fresh look at an old story. (afterword) (Fiction. 12-16)