Modern Staging of Dom Juan: To Denature or Revitalize?

Extract

[...] Classic stagings like those of Roumanoff and Bluwal do not prevent complexity. Thus, for example, Roumanoff's staging presents Sganarelle's tirade in a comical way with an exaggeration in the acting, while Bluwal's staging makes this scene more tragic with a close-up of Claude Brasseur who seems deeply sad, who speaks his text slowly in a monotonous voice and who even goes so far as to take his head in his hands in despair. II - Modern stagings continue to bring the original text to life The outdated classical representations" One can find that the classical representations are outdated. [...]

[...] It is then a way of denaturing the work. Thus, from the first appearance of the main character in the play, one understands the contemporary concerns that have participated in the interpretation of a character clearly presented as a toxic macho under the impulse of feminist movements such as '#'metoo » for example David Bobée even shows himself to be irreverent enough to turn the dramatic action of the play on its head in that the valet Sganarelle, a character without great relief in classical stagings, appears as triumphant and the great winner in this contemporary staging. [...]

[...] All the more so, since even classical stage settings can introduce subtlety into the setting, in the movement of the characters, in the intonation of the voice. However, classical stage settings can become outdated. The costumes of the era can harm the audience's immersion in the plot and our customs have evolved since. That's why, modern stage settings like Bobée's can allow us to dust off the original work by introducing a reflection on the society of our time. The question is therefore to know to what extent we can intervene as a stage director to introduce a modern reflection without distorting it. [...]

[...] The stage director himself says: 'Don Juan is at the same time classist, sexist, glottophobic, and dominant.' Thus, modern stage settings can be seen as a way to distort the original text. We try to force our current concerns, which are by nature ephemeral, onto original works that, on the other hand, transcend centuries. Changing even a single word in the dialogue presents itself as a condemnable way to distort the original work, since we would no longer be able to see its limits, and it would then be possible to rewrite everything. The risk of these modern stage settings is to sacrifice the substance of the original text, its essence. [...]

[...] One can represent it in a classical way with the clothes of the time for example, remain very faithful to the text or propose a 'new reading' of the play, related to the context of our time. Choosing a modern staging, is it to denature the original work? In the first place, we will show in what way a modern staging can indeed denature the original work, in what way one can affirm that it is a way of making the play say what it absolutely does not say and how it is then betrayed. [...]