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Don Juan

Don Juan’s amazing adventures, from the bedroom of a lady of Seville to the sultan’s harem, in a whirl of romance, satire and wit on a rollercoaster of sex and violence.

Don Juan
by Lord Byron
Adapted by Robin Brooks

Byron’s masterpiece, Don Juan, depicts young Juan’s amazing adventures as an innocent abroad, moving swiftly from the bedroom of a lady of Seville to a love island in the Cyclades, to the harem of the sultan, in a headlong whirl of sexual intrigue, romance and slavery, making a rollercoaster entertainment of comedy, tragedy and everything between.

Byron reverses the role of Juan, and instead of the heartless rake, we have a hapless young innocent, more seduced than seducer. The business is often romantic, sometimes highly erotic, sometimes comic, and sometimes – in a quite uniquely Byronic mix - all three.

The story opens with young Juan’s seduction, at the hands of a β€œchaste” married lady. After the high farce of their exposure, Juan undergoes exile and shipwreck, until he is washed up on a Grecian Isle, where he is nursed by the lovely young nymph HaidΓ©e, until the two of them fall passionately in love. We see this idyll destroyed by the return of HaidΓ©e’s father, the pirate king Lambro, who sells Juan into slavery. In the slave market at Constantinople, we enjoy Juan’s discomfiture as he is led off by the eunuch in the service of a mystery buyer, forced to dress in women’s clothes, and delivered in secret to sate the appetite of a spoilt and predatory Sultana, now the only man in the harem.

Byron narrates the story of his poem in his own voice, so we frame the poem with material taken from his life and letters, to illuminate the events and passions of his life which lie behind the joys and sorrows of his comic epic.

Adapted for Drama on 3 by Robin Brooks who also introduces the drama.

Byron.....Edward Bennett
Mephistopheles…..Julian Bleach
Don Juan.....Matthew Tennyson
Donna Julia.....Pippa Nixon
HaidΓ©e.....Dolores Carbonari
Gulbeyaz.....Keziah Joseph
Donna Inez.....Kate Paul
Don Alfonso/Johnson/Fletcher.....Nicholas Murchie
Lambro/Sultan/Crony.....Mark Spalding
Baba, a Eunuch.....Cyril Nri
Antonia / Lolah.....Bettrys Jones
Zoe.....Harmony Rose Bremner
Mother of the Maids.....Barbara Dryhurst
Katinka.....Alexandra Ewing
Dudu.....Kate Morgan Jones
Pedro / Crony /Diner/ Slaver.....Charlie Layburn
Margarita.....Eleanor Tata

Director / Producer Fiona McAlpine
Sound Design Alisdair McGregor

An Allegra Production for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

Picture credit : The Finding of Don Juan by HaidΓ©e by Ford Madox Brown.

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust, licensed under CCO

1 hour, 29 minutes

Last on

Sun 12 Dec 2021 19:30

Broadcast

  • Sun 12 Dec 2021 19:30