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Alexander Morfov >> works >> theatre productions >> Dom Juan | Gesher Theatre, Israel
Dom Juan
Gesher Theatre, Tel Aviv, Israel
premiere 21 February 2011
After
Translator
Stage adaptation, music
and director
Set design
Costumes
Light designer
Fencing advisor
Stage enunciation
Duration
Cast:
Jean-Baptiste Moliere
Roy Hen
Alexander Morfov
Alexander Orlov
Mihail Kramenko
Alexandr Sikirin
Ohad Balva, Dmitriy Osmolovsky
Yoni Lukas
160 min., with intermission
Sasha Demidov, Dvyr Benedeck, Evgeniy Terletzkiy, Neta Spiegelmann, Lucy Dubinchuk, Yael Toker, Henry David / Roman Gershkowitch, Yuval Yanay / Micky Leon, Nora Fischer, Gurr Koren, Orie Yaniv, Zion Ashkenazy, Svetlana Demidova / Ronna Beckermann
Dom Juan - the eternal seducer of all women and conqueror of all women's hearts, a heroic lover, destroyer of of all social foundations, an anarchist, a rebel against persistently triumphant hypocracy, a character that everyone knows of and that doesn't come off world's stages more than 300 years.
Today the Bulgarian director Alexander Morfov will offer us the chance to see Dom Juan from a different angle. In his eyes he's not only the determined fornicator or the inveterate womaniser, but he's also the romantic lunatic, the tragic clown, who truly believes that he, among all people, was born free. This warrior, the eternal wanderer, possessed by passion for adventure, is always trying to impose his own laws. It is possible? Is it worth it?...
Would you have a man bind himself to the first girl he falls in love with, say farewell to the world for her sake, and have no eyes for anyone else? A fine thing, to be sure, to pride oneself upon the false honour of being faithful, to lose oneself in one passion for ever, and to be blind from our youth up to all the other beautiful women who can captivate our gaze! No, no; constancy is the share of fools. Every beautiful woman has a right to charm us... As for me, beauty delights me wherever I meet with it, and I am easily overcome by the gentle violence with which it hurries us along...The first beginnings of love have, besides, indescribable charms, and the true pleasure of love consists in its variety... Nothing can surpass the pleasure of triumphing over the resistance of a beautiful maiden... I have the ambition of conquerors, who go from victory to victory, and cannot bring themselves to put limits to their longings. There is nothing that can restrain my impetuous yearnings. I have a heart big enough to be in love with the whole world; and, like Alexander, I could wish for other spheres to which I could extend my conquests.
~ Dom Juan
Moliere's “Dom Juan” is the deepest, the most philosophical and the most pure of all Dom Juans. There are numerous interpretations after that (I especially like the one by Max Frisch), but they are far from the mythology, the dreams, the problem of Dom Juan. I'm interested in the play not because of the lover, the great seducer, the dream of every woman, the adventurer. This is only an intermission, a decoration, the icing of a much deeper content. Here we see a person who has no addictions and is thoroughly independent from family, religion or society. In XXI century such a person bears a different illness. Personally, I'm attracted by Dom Juan for his ability to possess the ultimate freedom. The same question was raised years ago: what would you do when you are free? When you realize your complete freedom and there is no one to share it with…
Alexander Morfov
REVIEWS:
"Before our eyes is a true Dom Juan - embodiment of passion and instinct. And who, if not Demidov, fully giving himself out on stage, can present this nature with such a magnificence that leaves the audience astounded. A thunderous impression!"
~ Globes
"We really liked the production. It was exactly what I hoped it would be - classical, without far-fetched extravaganza or pseudo-intellectualism, with witty jokes and rhymes, sea waves with sheets and sunsets. This theatre venue has an excellent atmosphere, it is a temple with the typical smell of theatre dust (in the good sense of the expression). [...] We were very happy to see this show and during the intermission we even argued about whether the sense of humor in the production is Israeli or Bulgarian. Gladgly, nobody started the all jews' favourite game - all talented people on earth are jews neither regarding Moliere, nor Dom Juan."
Premiere of "Dom Juan" at Gesher Theatre | Nastya Cvetaeva, nastya-cvetaeva.livejournal.com, 22.02.2011
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