DON JUAN. To 11 October.
Glasgow.
DON JUAN
by Jeremy Raison based on Carlo Goldoni’s Don Juan translated by Robert David Macdonald.
Citizens’ Theatre To 11 October 2008.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 0141 429 0022.
www.citz.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 September.
This Don is quite a Juan, but nothing like the lady in his life.
No wonder this has two directors. It’s not just the male/female balance, that could be useful when dealing with this Don. There’s such a lot of production about on stage. Curtains descend, eras change, locations transmogrify, flashes and bangs occur as adapter/co-director Jeremy Raison dovetails Carlo Goldoni’s 18th-century account of the story with a modern frame of reference.
Raison shows that sex is a means not a purpose. His modern John D is a mover and shaker almost off the Richter scale in today’s A-list celeb culture. By the kind of sudden shock that’s powered many a transformation scene with spurious scientific cover, he finds himself clambering out of a drain, and meeting Fintan McKeown’s Tramp, an alter ego, guide and nemesis.
Raison's doubling is always significant, with Goldoni’s characters mirrored in 21st-century counterparts. And the power-lust equivalence with simple lust is clear from the present-day opening, with a young woman stepping naked from a shower, to be viewed by a (presumably) father then lover-figure.
A tilted landscape painting signals the 18th-century pastoral setting for Don Juan’s seduction of a credulous country-girl. But the central figure, who confronts Juan with a sense of independence and mystery shrouding a strong sense of individuality, is Neve McIntosh’s Anna. Exploited without being subdued, the agent, direct or indirect, of retribution for Juan, Anne and her 18th-century counterpart are beautifully embodied in McKintosh’s performance, which rightly draws in attention rather than making efforts to capture it.
This comes increasingly to contrast Mark Springer’s powerfully-built John/Juan, wrong-footed in a world where he’s gone from power-broker to wondering as he’s wandering and exercising, almost without volition at times, his power-sex urges. And wrong-footed by Fintan McKeown in various guises, with a downbeat, low-level style that can cross the line between realism and roughness.
The directors’ staging is repeatedly surprising in all technical departments, though this can call attention to itself rather than the story’s progress. And there’s a sense of a storeroom of theatrical devices being brought forward to impress, rather than organically necessary ideas. Still, it’s a profusion of ideas that animates the Citizens’ stage.
Ellie/Elisa/Lisa: Elspeth Brodie.
Izzy/Belle/Donna Isabella: Pauline Knowles.
Anne/Donna Anna: Neve McIntosh.
Tramp/Comendador: Fintan McKeown.
Otto/Duke Ottavio: James Anthony Pearson.
John D/Don Juan: Mark Springer.
Carino: Ross F Sutherland.
Directors: Jeremy Raison, Maxine Braham.
Designer: Jason Southgate.
Lighting: Stuart Jenkins.
Sound: Graham Sutherland.
Costume: Liz Krause.
Fight director: Carter Ferguson.
2008-10-08 09:52:01