An Original French-Language Musical
Science-fiction dystopia · Musical thriller · Philosophical drama
The Story
The year is 2239. In a dystopian totalitarian world where every emotion is forbidden by a divine artificial intelligence, a young woman becomes obsessed with a mysterious and dangerous prophet.
Her desire drives her towards madness, tearing through the terrifying illusion of a perfect society. What awakens within her is more than forbidden longing. It is the concealed truth of humanity itself.
A minimalist futuristic universe shaped by clean lines, ritual tension, and extreme emotional contrasts. The score combines modern symphonic writing with cinematic thriller textures created for the musical stage.
The staging treats the future not as a spectacle of machinery, but as a system of control. Space is stripped back to its essential lines. Movement becomes ceremonial, bodies are disciplined, and stillness carries the threat of punishment. Against this ordered world, each eruption of emotion feels dangerous, intimate, and irreversible.
Light, silhouette, and scale create the impression of a society watched by an invisible authority. The human figure remains at the centre of the visual language, caught between imposed perfection and the instinct to feel. The world is austere by design, allowing desire, fear, violence, and spiritual awakening to arrive with greater force.
The music follows the same dramatic tension. Modern symphonic writing meets cinematic thriller textures in a prophetic sound world that is lyrical, visceral, and written specifically for the musical stage.
At Its Heart
From the Creator
Salomé 2239 is difficult to explain. There are so many layers I wanted to add to the biblical story, largely because the interactions between these characters have always fascinated me. They are disturbing on so many levels: immoral, dark, twisted, desperate. And yet, I have always felt that these people were searching for something.
They seemed to cry out with a consuming need to escape the burden of their abnormal lives. To offer them the understanding they demanded, I placed them within a world that would ultimately break them and, through that rupture, allow each of them to experience a spiritual awakening.
The idea of a society shaped by a manipulative artificial intelligence, one that forbids every form of emotion beneath the disguise of authoritarian propaganda, feels strangely familiar. It led me to a deeper question: what makes us human?
It is certainly not society, education, philosophy, or science. What remains as humanity’s only redemption in a world governed by destructive political and global interests? Once we have destroyed much of what we now call our world, what will remain of our true humanity? When the immense and absolute power of emotion has been forgotten, what could awaken our sleeping memory?
Salomé 2239 is about people who surrendered themselves to those who persuaded them that they knew better. It is a warning to anyone who has forgotten that nothing is more important, vital, or revealing than love. It is a whisper of unease in a world where truth has been forgotten, an unbearable universe of questions and an eternal thirst for the immortal soul and the divine within us.
Alexandre DiaconuCreator, composer, writer, and stage directorOn Stage
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Production and Licensing
For production, presentation, collaboration, and licensing enquiries, contact The New Musical Company.
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