BACK STAGE WEST
July 31, 2003
at the Sacred
Fools Theater
A past master at
the smart, sketchy short-form playlet, David Ives tries his hand at a full-length
here and mostly manages well, though he does some fast tap-dancing to pull it
off. There are at least a dozen too many bad puns, creaky rhyming couplets, and
pop-culture winks in this Twilight Zone take on the Don Juan story, which mixes in a little Faust, a little Seinfeld, even a little Marriage of Figaro.
It's a tribute to
director Joe Jordan's fleet-footed, well-modulated direction that, though we're
always aware of Ives' cleverness and the theatricality of his concept, and we
can see some of his twists coming centuries away, we have a good time along the
way.
Ives' Don Juan
(Jeff Marlow) starts out in 17th century Spain as a cloistered alchemy nerd
with neither interest nor experience in sex. His next science experiment:
summoning the devil to ask for immortality. When Mephistopheles (Mark McClain
Wilson, overmincing just a bit) arrives, choking on his own sulfur, he quickly
agrees--on the condition that the virginal Don Juan bed a different woman every
night or the jig is up and it's barbecue time. The don shakes on it and
thoughtfully includes his servant Leporello (Michael Lanahan) in the bargain.
Good thing, as
Leporello will be a key ally in his success--first with the conveniently ready
and willing Dona Elvira (Ashley West Leonard) and then for centuries afterward,
as the two work their way through the women of city after city, carefully
noting names, dates, and locales so that the don doesn't dip his wick twice in
the same place (part of the deal). Unaware of his deal and longing for a second
chance is persistent Elvira, whose deal with the devil is an inverse of Don
Juan's: She gets to live until she beds him again.
The logical
extremes of this double fantasy provide most of the play's plot and also
scratch at some existential pathos: What's the point of living forever when
you've got to woo and screw someone new every night? Especially when there are
complications, courtesy of a Durang-like misfit couple (Julie Alexander and
Frank Stasio) and a dorky sitcom neighbor and his new girlfriend (Phillip
Wofford and Maggie Marion). In other words, Ives' second act Chicago is closer
to TV Land than Mamet, as even the play's warped complications get a tidy
wrap-up.
As the
increasingly world-weary but still self-involved don, Marlow gives a sleek,
witty performance that bounces off Lanahan's Everyman rancor quite nicely, like
Jeeves and Wooster in sitcom purgatory. Leonard pitches her desperate Elvira
just about as far over the top as she'll go, making the most of Ives'
funny-terrible doggerel verse and helping the ending, with its meaning-of-life
felicities, go down like the dessert it is.
The same could be
said of this production, which boasts fine costumes by Ruth Silviera and Mary
Hayes and set by Carlos Fedos: It's a fruit-loopy divertimento, not Don Giovanni, and it's played here by a first-rate
chamber ensemble.
"Don Juan
in Chicago," presented by and at Sacred Fools Theater, 660 N. Heliotrope
Dr., Hollywood. Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. July 17-Aug. 23. $15. (310)
281-8337.