Don Juan

Don Juan is not your typical play. For one, it took place in a non-traditional setting….a photography studio called Silverbox Studios. Don Juan, adapted by Emily Adams, takes place after World War I in Berlin. Don Juan (Jeff Conway) has come back from the war to find his beloved Edda (Matt Ingram), only to find that she is gone and cannot be found. Leaving a trail of broken hearts (consisting of Gina Drapela, Rhîan McLean and Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri) on his journey to find her, Don Juan is a dark, seductive play that intrigues the audience as much as it makes them uncomfortable.

The scenic design of the play was very minimalistic. Designed by Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri and Emily Adams, the space that the actors had to work with was very…limited. Not a lot of walking around the space was used, and if it was, the actor went behind the audience in a space between the audience and the wall. An old, metal tub sits in the middle of the acting space, with a dresser covered in bottles occupy what little room there is. A mannequin stands patiently to the side as actors use it as a place to grab various costumes or props from (if they are onstage for the current and next scene).  The audience gets a feeling of claustrophobia, as the small space is occupied by such a large story with people who have large personalities. Still, at least the actors worked with what they had. At the beginning of the play, a wooden cover is used on the tub, and it suddenly became a hospital bed for Don Juan to lie on when he seduces the nurse. And, in the very last scene, the tub suddenly becomes a grave, with Drapela and Palmieri acting as the falling snow and Ingram standing at the front of the grave as a headstone.

With the set comes the lighting, which I have even less to talk about. Designed by Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri and Emily Adams, the lights consisted of a string of Christmas lights on the ceiling and two small spotlights no bigger than my forearm. While the Christmas lights created a nice, warm glow, there wasn’t much more to the lighting, in my opinion. Two moments I could really tell the lighting differences was at the beginning, where the two small spotlights seemed to glow red, casting a hazy, seductive light on the actors, which is appropriate considering the actors were engaging in what is to be considered an orgy. And the other real moment I noticed the lighting design is in the very last scene. It was extremely dark, except for the two small spotlights were blue instead of red, which gave the audience the sense of cold and bitterness (again, appropriate considering we were at a grave).

Lastly, the costumes, were by far my favorite aspect. The girls (and sometimes Ingram) were all dressed in lingerie of some form or other. And our anti-hero Don Juan (Conway) wore a military uniform that he never seems to take off (although there were shirt removals at key points in the play). One nice moment that I liked was the stark difference in colors between the prostitutes (Ingram and Palmieri) and the rest of the girls (Drapela and McLean). The prostitutes were dressed in a dark black, which most associate with darkness or having a seductive quality, which I thought was a nice contrast to the other two women with the white or cream colored lingerie, which belies a more innocent intent. Another nice touch that I enjoyed was the torn fishnets that every girl sported. It really gave a nice indication to the audience that this Berlin was not one flush with amenities, like whole pantyhose. It seemed like the people, or women, were so desperate to look nice that they would don these torn hose just to have some semblance of normalcy.

Don Juan’s Last Stand (An Excerpt)

In a collaborative effort with the cast and director, the costumes for Don Juan belied a desperation and animalistic nature of Don Juan. With torn fishnet stockings and loosely-fitting lingerie worn by the women, the effect this has is an over-sexualization of the female characters, which can put the audience in the same mindset as our love lothario; women are just objects, a means to a very satisfying end. While our anti-hero wore a soldier’s uniform the entire time. While this uniform was worn proudly by Don Juan, this reads to the audience that he is stuck in his past, and cannot escape from it (appropriate, since he is literally chasing his past).