John and Salome: A Full-length Play in Two Acts

This play is based on the biblical story involving John the Baptist, Salome, and Herod—the narrative found in Matthew 14:1–12 and Mark 6:14–29. As Scripture unfolds in these passages, John the Baptist publicly condemned Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, for marrying Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, calling the union unlawful. Herodias resented John deeply and wanted him killed, but Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him imprisoned instead.

During Herod’s birthday banquet, Salome (unnamed in Scripture but identified by the historian Josephus) danced before Herod and his guests. Pleased, Herod rashly vowed to give her anything she asked, “up to half his kingdom” (Mark 6:23). At her mother Herodias’s urging, Salome requested the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Though distressed, Herod honored his oath before his guests and ordered John’s execution. John’s disciples later took his body and buried it.

Elvgren’s script shines a spotlight on a theological “what if?” Rather than treating Salome as a mindless, transactional piece of history, the play places her and John the Baptist side-by-side in a gritty fortress jail, generating dynamic friction. The narrative explores the psychological devastation of forcing love and adulthood upon children before their time, contrasting the manipulative, forced sensuality pushed by Herodias against Salome’s genuine, desperate search for boundaries and true human identity. John the Baptist’s own inner struggle with the silence of the heavens persuasively mirrors Salome’s isolation within her family.