MIDNIGHT ROSE is based on the life of Edwardian dancer Maud Allan, who performed as the Bible’s most notorious temptress and paid the price for embodying men’s worst nightmares about women. Allan’s 'Vision of Salome' made her a celebrity, though the dance profession in those days was considered only a step above prostitution. In 1918 a newspaper article hinted that she was a lesbian and Allan sued for libel. The trial that followed threw a searchlight on the social hypocrisies and sexual ignorance of the age, as self-appointed guardians of public morality lined up to attack the one of the most famous women of her day.