DON JUAN COMES BACK FROM THE WAR till 17 November
Coventry.
Belgrade Theatre.
DON JUAN COMES BACK FROM THE WAR: Odon Von Horvath, trans, Christopher Hampton.
Runs: 2h 45m, one interval, till 17 November.
Review: Rod Dungate, 9 November 2008.
An important, stimulating rarity, beautifully staged.
Who would think Coventry could become a regional centre for exciting productions of important non-British plays? Clearly Hamish Glen, the Belgrade’s Artistic Director does. DON JUAN COMES BACK FROM THE WAR, in this gripping and marvellous production by Gadi Roll, is a major boost to Glen achieving his aim.
Roll, and his team, absolutely capture the epic style of the play; he fuses two seemingly contradictory requirements – simplicity and explicitly thrilling theatrical effects – the amazing design is by Douglas Heap. Horvath’s irony, his bitter humour flourish, his ideas wing their way into the auditorium.
Horvath wrote the play in the late 1930s. He’d already fled from Germany to Vienna to escape Nazi persecution; he was about to flee again to Paris – Vienna was about to be annexed to Germany. He sets his play around 1916. Not surprising then that Horvath’s landscape is bleak; lives are ruined by war, people are poor, families don’t function. Into this pot he adds the cynical Don Juan (with all his mythological baggage) but subverts him at the same time. ‘The war made me a good man,’ he says, ‘now in peace I’m getting back to my old self again.’
Don Juan returns from the war and sets out on a journey to find his true love. But we know, and it takes him the play to find out, that she died because of his cruel treatment of her. In Horvath’s world, it would appear, there is no room for love either.
Horvath sets his play in the icy grip of snowy winter. In a great theatrical coup Roll and Heap make real this metaphor. Thick snow covers the acting space; it’s swept into great drifts, then spread across the space again. Some scenes are played in thick fog, the stage picture mysteriously emerging as the action moves forward.
Tom Burke captures Don Juan perfectly for this production. His performance is understated, unassuming. We understand why he’s sexually attractive, yet he doesn’t make it so, it just is. In another play we might feel sympathy for him, but this play doesn’t allow us to, so we don’t, and that’s right. On the other hand, we don’t dislike him either . . .
A strong acting team opens up this play for us. Performing in a heightened style they capture the strange realistic quality of the dialogue. Horvath posits more questions than he gives answers, and that’s right too.
Don Juan: Tom Burke.
Maid / Waitress / 3rd Lady / Blonde: Lucy Briggs-Owen.
3rd Woman / 1st Designer / Masked Lady / 2nd Little Girl: Louise Ford.
2nd Prostitute / 2nd Daughter / 1st Village Girl: Amy McAllister.
Grandmother / Fat Woman: Eleanor Montgomery.
2nd Woman / Nurse / 2nd Lady / Brunette: Kate Sissons.
1st Soubrette / Matron / Mother / Landlady: Lisa Stevenson.
1st Prostitute / 2nd Designer / 1st Lady / 2nd Village Girl: Martha Swann.
1st Woman / 4th Lady / Neighbour / 2nd Old Woman / 1st Little Girl: Lucy Voller.
2nd Soubrette / Widow / 1st Daughter / Lady from Berne / 1st Old Woman: Victoria Yeates.
Director: Gadi Roll.
Designer – based on an idea by Miriam Guretzki: Douglas Heap.
Lighting Designer: Jonathan Samuels.
Costume Designer: Joanna Scotcher.
Composer and Sound Designer: Eldad Lidor.
Casting Director: Camilla Evans.
2007-11-09 10:46:35