Let’s rock the baroque

What do Molière’s Don Juan, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series and E. L. James’s trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey have in common? They all deal with the idea of ‘vampires’; of dominant men who live off the flesh of women. Legendary libertine Don Juan has a lot in common with the two contemporary blockbusters mentioned above. He is the quintessential anti-hero who attracts and repulses in equal measure and who lives in the dark outer reaches of society. Don Juan’s story is steeped in blood. He has left a trail of seduced and abandoned women, killed a commandant, and has a total hatred of things religious. He is in effect a creature of the night. Is it any wonder therefore that Don Juan, Moliere’s most popular play, is regularly performed around the world? The latest incarnation of this man-beast takes centre stage this weekend as part of the Manoel Theatre’s International Baroque Festival. This production, directed by Chris Gatt, takes a very contemporary look at Don Juan, presenting him as a popular, cocaine-snorting deejay, who travels around Europe, seducing any girl he finds along the way. In a fast-and-furious series of dramatic moments, peppered with some of Molière’s funniest...