DON JUAN. To 28 August.
Bath/Malvern
DON JUAN
by Moliere translated by Simon Nye
Theatre Royal Bath In rep to 14 August 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 11am 7,14 August
then Festival Theatre Malvern In rep 18-28 August
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm & 11am 28 August
Runs 1hr 20min No interval
TICKETS: 01225 448844 (Bath)
01684 892277
bookings@malvern-theatres.co.uk (Malvern)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 July
A snappy, brisk, sleekly modern production that's very seductive.Simon Nye's snappy translation (seen, with the same short running-time, last autumn at Sheffield's Crucible) has a modern tone matched by the slimline modernity of Thea Sharrock's acute production. Only light period costume sets us back from the Bath/Malvern season's companion Don Juan play, Shaw's Man and Superman.
Played out in front of a huge mirror, on an otherwise bare space, this confident, self-regarding Juan faces continual challenges as people come from the sides spurned women, vengeful brother, a tradesman, Juan's father. But it's when this mirror resolves to a window that the unconquerable challenges appear behind the glass: the murdered Commander's statue, the figure of death.
Will Keen's Juan meets all with supreme confidence. In place of flowing youthful locks, this is an aging, bald, sleek and highly contained seducer, his power arising from complete lack of self-doubt. Never still, compulsive moves - arms pressing out, knees bending, whole body revolutions show a drive to act. Forced to listen to his father, he stands sullen, eyes down. This is a man who lives on his own terms.
He has good qualities, bravery and hatred of cowardice, but with no time or room for reflection. Few things deprive him of vigour, and then only momentarily. There's a telling loss of energy when he describes the love process; after sex, life becomes empty till the next woman comes along. This seducer is a hamster run by the wheels of desire or by a Shavian Life Force.
His practised skill easily strings two girls along together (Sophie Winkleman and Tessa Churchard both excellent, lusciously and eagerly naïve), or sees off a creditor. Taking on religious hypocrisy's merely one new technique for this iron Don. He's finely counterpointed by Mark Hadfield's unwillingly dependent Sganarelle, who survives on his own ready wit and plausibility.
A final reference to Peter Hall's Man and Superman has Juan climbing a ladder to go with William Chubb's unusually unstony-, regretful-voiced Statue. He begins to climb, like Shaw's Juan, but sinks to Hell - leaving Sganarelle, who began things with praise of tobacco, crying for his wages; Juan's last cheat.
Sganarelle: Mark Hadfield
Guzman/Beggar/Mr Sunday: Peter Gordon
Don Juan: Will Keen
Elvira: Rebecca Hall
Peter/Don Carlos: Guy Lankester
Ragotin/Don Alonso: Gyuri Sarossy
Charlotte: Sophie Winkleman
Martha: Tessa Churchard
Statue: William Chubb
Don Luis: James Laurenson
Director: Thea Sharrock
Designer: Kevin Rigdon
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Sound: Gareth Fry
Music consultant: Mick Sands
Costume: Kevin Rigdon, Trish Rigdon
Fight director: Terry King
2004-07-30 16:54:56