Molière's
Apocalyptic Comedy

adapted for Blackbird Theatre by John Wright

Don Juan is a brilliant prose comedy written in 1665.  It caused a scandal and closed in two weeks.  Though the character is a part of our lore, the play is not nearly as well known as Molière’s other work.  But it is intriguingly modern in structure and tone, and the comedy of the final scenes is dark, with words swinging like the sword of Damocles over the profligate hero.

The Story

Don Juan rejects all conventional morality, becoming ever more daring and outrageous as the story progresses, ultimately defying God, Heaven, and Hell itself.  He is magnetic, bold, and exceedingly clever. 

Don Juan's servant, Sganarelle, a brilliant comic invention played by Molière himself, is appalled by his master’s epic chicaneries and his contempt for authority and piety. Their disputes are a feast of wit. 

The Don’s greatest pleasure is to trick women into mock marriages, enjoy them, then abandon them.  His most recent victim is the beautiful Dona Elvira, whom he has lured from a nunnery.  She and the Beggar are the only characters that Don Juan meets who are without hypocrisy. Although she gives the Don hell for leaving her, Elvira later tries to help him by begging him to repent.

The Don's last act of defiance is both courageous and foolhardy.  The statue of the Commander (whom he has recently slain in a duel) becomes ambulatory, and appears at the Don’s villa.  Not wishing to show fear, Don Juan takes the statue’s hand and, in a great scene of conflagration, is promptly dragged down to the fires of Hell. Sganarelle is left alone on stage bemoaning his fate:  “My wages, my wages!

The Production

Three songs, two duels and a trip to Hell — an evening with comedy's great master playwright, Molière.

Peter Jorgensen stars as the legendary rogue and Simon Webb as his beleaguered servant. Music will feature a newly commissioned rock mass in Latin (with electric guitar) from composer Peter Berring, and arias from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, sung and played on the guitar and harpsichord by the leading actors.