Hérode et Mariamne

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Hérode et Mariamne or Mariamne is a 1724 tragedy by Voltaire, set in Jerusalem. It was premiered with Lecouvreur as Mariamne, Baron as Herod and Duclos as Salome, but had to be withdrawn after just one performance when the audience gave it a critical reception. This failure encouraged Nadal to produce his Mariamne in February 1725, but that was also hostilely received, with calls for the return of Voltaire's version of the story. Nadal accused Voltaire of ensuring Nadal's play's failure by filling the audience with his supporters, and this led to a bitter war of words between them.

Within months of Nadal's play, Voltaire managed to revise his play (responding to criticisms in the characterisation, he made Herod a more self-doubting and introspective rather than monolithic figure, for example, and moved Mariamne's suicide off-stage) and his cast (changing Herod from Baron to Dufresne). It re-premiered at the Comedie Francaise as Hérode et Mariamne on 25 April 1725. In this form, it proved a success, with two-thirds of all boxes at the theatre pre-booked and crowds besieging the theatre, and thus brought Voltaire back into France's upper cultural echelons. It even proved the subject of the 1725 parody le Mauvais ménage de Voltaire, by Dominique and Legrand.[1]

[edit] Cast

Varus, Roman praetor
Herode, king of Palestine
Mariamne, wife of Herod
Salome, sister of Herod
Albin, confident of Varus
Mazael and Idamas, ministers of Herod
Nabal, an old officer of the Hasmonean kings (possibly a satirical side-swipe at Nadal)
Elize, confident of Mariamne
Herod's followers
Varus's followers