Don Juan in Soho
by Patrick Marber, Melbourne Theatre Company
Where and When: Fairfax Studio, Jan 9 until Feb 10, 2008
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Updating the legendary libertine Don Juan is difficult because of the prevalence of promiscuity in our modern world.
Historically Don Juan is represented as a totally heartless, immoral, lying womaniser or, alternatively, as a man who genuinely sees beauty in and loves every woman. Patrick Marber’s Don Juan (Dan Wyllie) is the former nasty type.
Marber’s Don Juan is based on Moliere’s version, Dom Juan or The Feast With the Statue. Don Juan is a dissolute son of an English earl (Bob Hornery). We meet him just after his abandonment of his wife of two weeks, Elvira (Katie-Jane Harding), a virginal aid worker with two hot-blooded brothers (Angus Cerini, Craig Annis) who want vengeance on Don Juan for his abuse of their sister.
Central to the story is the Don’s relationship with his servant Stan, the moral compass that is ignored by the ruthless Don. Daniel Frederiksen almost steals the show playing Stan with gentle, understated wit. Stan is the only character that touches us and his confusion and distress at his boss’s cruelty are palpable.
Wyllie is a quirky actor who explores some hilarious elements in the character of the Don but seems miscast as the captivating rogue. He is genuinely funny in such outrageous scenes as seducing two women simultaneously in a hospital waiting room. But he is uncomfortable playing the stylish elegance and grace that must sit effortlessly on Don Juan and he pushes vocally to find the toff’s speech patterns.
Harding brings to Elvira a delicate beauty, a classical style and a great sense of comic melodrama. Hornery is dignified and impassioned as Don Juan’s outraged father and Christen O’Leary is compelling and funny as the brassy girl in the hospital and as a bunny-suited, Slavic hooker. The remaining cast (Cerini, Annis, Bert Labonte, Kate Jenkinson, James Saunders) provide strong supporting roles.
Marber’s comic and melodramatic script, directed by Peter Evans, is wildly funny in parts but patchy in others. The supernatural scenes dealing with the statue of Charles II that pursues Don Juan to Hell are not as successful as the comic business because the statue bears no relationship to the characters. In other versions, the statue is of a father murdered by Don Juan in pursuit of his seductions. However, Don Juan in Soho is outrageous and funny despite its flaws.
By Kate Herbert
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