MARK JACKSON

“Maud Allan has long deserved a play of her own, and she gets a brilliant one in Mark Jackson’s Salomania. Directed by the playwright in its world premiere by Aurora Theatre Company, it’s an incisive courtroom drama… An intriguing biography of an exceptional woman, and an instructive look at an era not unlike our own… Deftly staged… The trial scenes are riveting, but some of the finest moments in Salomania happen outside the courtroom. An encounter between a bitter soldier and a war widow is haunting... Salomania is sensational.”

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

“Like all of Jackson's plays, Salomania brims with big ideas, almost to the point of overreaching. Somehow, it's still masterful… A wildly ambitious play… Jackson pulls it all together by placing high demands on everyone, including the audience. It's a fabulous conceit that risks falling apart in the execution. That it coheres in the end — and even resonates with contemporary politics — is a triumph.”

EAST BAY EXPRESS

“This is all a gold mine for drama, and Jackson takes it on with relish in Salomania, an often stunning patchwork of scenes around the libel trial and the Great War that resonate deeply… Jackson’s script is often very funny and just as often tremendously poignant.”

THEIDIOLECT.COM

“Wildly imaginative… Jackson lives up to his reputation for bracing ideas and balletic stage pictures here. He cleverly juxtaposes Allan's ludicrous trial with the carnage of life in the trenches during World War I.”

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

“Fascinating and at moments electrifying… This is prime material for a drama, and Jackson is just the writer/director to bring it to interesting and finely detailed life… Jackson is such an astute craftsman that he’s able to create a near-epic feel in the intimate Aurora. His cast of seven makes a powerful impression… Through it all, Jackson orchestrates the proceedings with lyrical moments of dance and humor and horror… This is rich, rewarding material… Its observations about the third estate, wartime hysteria and the distraction of a good scandal are as alarming as they are entertaining.”

THEATERDOGS.NET

“Alternately exciting and frustrating, Jackson's newest play is chock-full of current gay-rights resonance… Courtroom and combat scenes, as well as backstage strategy sessions and San Francisco flashbacks, play off each other to keep broadening an exploration of changing social ideas in wartime. …It's a credit to prolific playwright and director Jackson that he not only pulls together all these elements but also makes their juxtapositions easily comprehensible… Jackson mines terrific material from the trial transcripts, including hilariously disturbing ignorance about the meaning of the words ‘orgasm’ and ‘clitoris.’ …And Jackson strikes gold with his most counterintuitive stroke. In Liam Vincent's finely textured portrayal, the problematic Bosie becomes the most sympathetic person we meet.”

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“Salomania, written and directed by Mark Jackson, is a spectacular play in all senses of the word. Reeling between the trenches of World War I and an uproarious courtroom drama as funny as it is disturbing, it spins out a staggering constellation of questions relating theater and war, art and politics, beauty and brutality. In each character's personal tragedy, it offers something in the way of answer… Fantastically entertaining throughout and studded with scenes of profound relevance and philosophical weight, Salomania is a brilliant play as substantial as it is well composed.”

SFAPPEAL.COM

“Maud Allan's name won't be found in any list of the casualties of World War I, but she surely must be ranked among its victims… Her story is being told with force and compassion by Mark Jackson's Salomania… Jackson carries the tale from the trenches of France to the Old Bailey to taverns, bedrooms and other venues with remarkable fluidity and force.”

HUFFINGTON POST

“Jackson's sharp, sprawling, ensemble-driven exploration brings up plenty of tantalizing suggestions, while reveling in the complexly intermingling themes of sex, nationalism, militarism, women's rights, and the webs spun by media and politics… In its cracked-mirror portraiture of an era, the play echoes a social and political turmoil that has never really subsided.”

SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN

“With the spectacular theatricality of playwright Mark Jackson’s delicate, humorous and beautifully expressive direction, the scandal-drenched story of Maud Allan culminates into a fascinating treat… Salomania is also one of those rare instances when a playwright directs his own material and manages to plumb extra layers from the crisp dialogue with the use of beautiful symbolism and glorious stage pictures, most notably a pearl-clad Maud Allan mournfully pacing the trenches, and soldiers who are frozen by birdsong. Jackson’s creative direction does not disappoint because he crystallizes moments and characters, leaving no doubt of both motivation from his actors and sense of place from his entire team, from the trenches to a courtroom to a cafe.”

STAGEANDCINEMA.COM

“Mark Jackson has shown his genius again in Salomania at Aurora Theater Company… The star of the show is Jacksonʼs superior directing and stagecraft. His ability to stage epic drama in Auroraʼs contained theatre space, and to keep our attention rapt during long periods of immobile conversation is worth the price of admission… Jackson’s depiction of soldiers in the trenches is realistic and wrenching… The staging is inventive and extraordinary… In another masterful turn, a scene of execution by hanging is done simply with lights and sound and more effectively than any trapdoor or other contrivance could have been."

BERKELEY DAILY PLANET

“The intelligence and wit of the play’s script is met by the skill of the Aurora Theater’s production. Mark Jackson, the playwright and director, deftly weaves together several time periods, from the 1890s to 1918, and locations between San Francisco, London and France… It takes a particularly limber cast to make scenes like the imagined conversation between Wilde and Allen work when sandwiched between a courtroom drama and a high-octane battle, but the cast of Salomania don and shed characters effortlessly… Art doesn’t just imitate life. Salomania is too nuanced to suggest that. Yes, the Shakespearian connections between the theater of the courtroom, of the battlefield and the theatricality of life itself are here, but Salomania shows rather how life reacts to art…”

THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN

“Writer-director Mark Jackson has done more than simply rely on court records with Salomania, having its world premiere at Aurora Theatre. He provides multi-layers of context for the proceedings, including Wilde's own ruinous trial 13 years before, Allan's family tragedy in San Francisco that always haunted her, and the frontline trenches of WWI… Both funny and horrifying through contemporary eyes, there are magical moments that Jackson creates…”

BAY AREA REPORTER