Don Juan in Hell

Steve Capra's review:
Don Juan in Hell
by George Bernard Shawdirected by Karen Case Cook
with: Elise Stone
Jason O’Connell
Joseph J. Menino
Craig Smith
George Bernard Shaw wrote Man and Superman in 1903. He revived the comedy of manners to present the Don Juan myth taken from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Now, Shaw saw women as the sexual aggressor, intent on procreation and furthering human development. In his version of the story it is Dona Ana (now personified as Ann Whitefield) who chases Don Juan (John Tanner). Shaw was influenced by the Nietzchean idea of the Superman, and it was woman who would produce that Superman.
The play is full of erudite Shavian cleverness, but its greatness comes from Tanner’s dream that takes up nearly all of the third act – Don Juan in Hell. It is in style and tone totally different than the larger play, and nearly sui generis in modern drama.
Don Jan in Hell is less a drama than a dramatic dialog. John Tanner shows up as Don Juan himself, Ann Whitefield as Dona Ana. Ana’s father the Commander shows up, as does the devil himself, in all his charm. DJ and the devil engage in a friendly but mutually biting philosophical argument. Beneath it is a contest for the soul of the Commander, who’s decided to move down from heaven. DJ being the move persuasive, in the end he changes his mind.
Hell isn’t such a bad place. “Hell is the home of honor, duty, justice, and the rest of the seven deadly virtues”, DJ says. “Have I not told you that the truly damnedare those who are happy in hell?” DJ is above all this; his ideal is the great Life Force. “Heaven is the home of the masters of reality.”
Shaw’s skill at writing this polemic dialogue is incredibly deft. The arguments are dizzying. There are countless Shavian reversals. What’s even more impressive is the characters’ habit of co-opting one another’s arguments. The play demands from the audience a great facility of to listen just to keep up with the verbal acrobatics. What keeps us absorbed is the flow of thought in the moment. But few of us have the ability to hear the current thought in the context of the much larger flow of argument.
The Phoenix Theater Ensemble has produced Don Juan off-off-Broadway. This exquisite production animates the weighty text by tight, quick direction and wonderful acting. The space is small and Spartan. The small bare room in which it’s staged – nothing but a low rectangular wall, center – serves up a dramatic compression.
Karen Case Cook wisely keeps the presentation straightforward, without tricks or gimmicks. Her direction is opaque; we’re never aware of it. It’s enormously precise. The arguing never cools, and its rhythm never falters. This is the glossy, polished sheen of theater, not its psychological depth.
The cast can’t be faulted. They maintain the tone that’s unique to the play and they mine as much variety as they can within that tone. The three gentlemen on stage are superb, never ranting, never losing the flow of argument. But the most marvelous performance comes from Karen Case Cook as Dona Ana. With little to say, she never flags in her listening. She discovers every word with intelligent attention, engrossed. She has the smile of a student fascinated by the subject at hand and with a bit of genius herself.
Dona Ana’s progress is less toward improvement than toward self-realization. She finally arrives there in the last line closing the dream: “My work is not yet done. I believe in the life to come. A father for the Superman!”
However, one might not be blamed for being taken aback by the play's philosophy. After all, hell is the home of the "seven deadly virtues", and Don Juan says of the place "Here we worship love and beauty." But Shaw enjoyed shocking his audience.
In the final analysis, Don Juan in Hell demands to be studied, not heard. It’s too enormous for an audience to comprehend in the theater. It would take a Shavian mind. As the Commander says,“This is extremely abstract and metaphysical.” More credit to The Phoenix Theater Ensemble for producing it.

Popular posts from this blog

Anouilh's Antigone

There is a moment in Fusion Theatre’s production of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone (at Theatre Row’s Studio Theatre) when Creon says to Antigone “Don’t annihilate me with those eyes.” And indeed, Antigone’s unrelenting stare does seem to be annihilating him, as it’s been annihilating everyone. As Antigone, Eilin O’Dea motivates Creon’s line so well that it seems Anouilh has written it in response to the actress. Anouilh’s play, as this production makes clear, is an important drama. Anouilh reworked Sophocles’ play keeping the ancient Greek names and keeping the action in Thebes. The characters, however, mention tobacco, blood tests, film and cars. The dissonance reminds us that Anouilh’s message of courage and moral responsibility is ageless. Anouilh has created a raisonneur in a character called simply The Chorus. Tragedy, he tells us, “has nothing to do with melodrama”. “In tragedy, argument is gratuitous,” he says, but this is a very strange line; Antigone and Creon will soo...
Read more

C.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert

C.S. Lewis lived between 1898 and 1963. He’s best known for his works of fiction such as The Screwtape Letters and The Chronicles of Narnia , although his non-fiction work is arguably more important. He ranks among the foremost 20 th -century Christian apologists and theologians. Max McLean has written a terrific solo show in which he presents Lewis in his study at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1950, C.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert . Mr. MacLean is the show’s actor, and he’s co-directed it with Ken Denison. The script details Lewis’ conversion from atheism to Christianity, delineating the transformation in discrete steps. Lewis begins with his childhood in Belfast: “Mother’s death produced in me a deeply engrained pessimism,” he tells us. And “At 13 I ceased to be a Christian. At that age one scarcely notices.” He was confirmed in The Church of Ireland “in total disbelief.” The script presents us with the structure of Lewis’ life – his time at Oxford, his enli...
Read more

A Blanket of Dust

Image
Photo by Sharon Kinsella In Richard Squires’ play A Blanket of Dust, presented at The Flea Theater by Delphi Film in association with Alfonso Ramos and Eve Pomerance, a woman, Diane, looses her husband in the 9-11 disaster. She’s convinced that the government is responsible for the catastrophe, and campaigns to uncover the conspiracy. She’s a Senator’s daughter, so the issue becomes a family affair. Years later, she becomes involved with Andrew, a book store owner active in the dissident movement. Andrew is also at odds with his parents on political issues (his father is in government but it’s not clear what his position is.) In frustration, Andrew commits suicide - he sets fire to himself - in protest. This is all pretty grim, but, well, it’s a grim world, and it’s good to see issue- committed theater.   Mr. Squires’ keeps his script as lean as the WTC towers. The characters have no identity aside from their attitudes toward the issue, aside from the sketchy romance. ...
Read more