Casanovas beware, your ladies are fighting back
Theatre
Don Juan on Trial
DramSoc
Union Concert Hall
21-24 February
7.30pm
Tickets £4.50 Students
For all those Casanovas (or wannabes) who spend each Wednesday strutting their stuff on the Union dance floor, this play should ring some tones of truth.
It tells the great story of the man who thought he was the world's greatest lover... and the people who tried to cure him of it! To quote the man himself "I give women pleasure, if they desire, it is of course the greatest pleasure they will ever experience". It appears that some may beg to differ.
Just about everyone from Byron, Marlon Brando and the oh-so-lovely Johnny Depp have been involved with this script over the years. The enticing and intriguing Don Juan is a character that has inspired authors and directors alike, with hours of film and stage dedicated to analysing the personality that lies behind the mask of one of the greatest myths ever written.
His character sees women as giving men just three things - life, disillusionment and death. Juan has had his way with, and was pursued by many women, and now they are all out to get their revenge.
The action in this latest offering, from the renowned Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, takes place one night in a large manor-house in the middle of nowhere on the moors of Normandy, where Don Juan is to be tried by five women - all his former lovers and victims.
But in this bitter-sweet and powerful script from one of the most internationally celebrated French writers, his punishment is not to be a life of servitude or repentance, or even dancing in the Union. Instead they want him to marry his latest conquest - a strange set of circumstances for any Casanova to end up in.
Has life finally caught up with him? Has the myth finally come to an end?
