• Overview
• Staging information
• Translations
• Sample translations
• Production history

Scene

The play is a three-act comedia. The scenes shift rapidly - from interior palace locations to the seaside, to the country, to outside Don Gonzalo’s house, to a church, to inside Don Juan’s house, to inside Don Gonzalo’s house - so a versatile set might be appropriate.

Staging

The many locations in this play mean that the action must be able to shift easily from one setting to the next. The use of darkness and light is important, for Don Juan seduces women under cover of darkness, pretending to be another man. At the seaside, Tisbea holds Don Juan as he recovers from a shipwreck, so there should be an illusion of proximity to the sea and Juan is probably soaking wet. The Marquis de la Mota has a cape, which Juan appropriates to impersonate him, and he kills Don Gonzalo (he stabs him with his sword) wearing the Marquis’s cape. The peasant marriage of Batricio and Aminta needs a table set with the wedding feast, for Don Juan takes his seat at the celebration right next to the bride, and holds her hand. Once the couple are married and have set up house, Don Juan seduces Aminta there while Batricio is out. Juan and his servant visit a church and see Don Gonzalo’s statue there, with an inscription vowing revenge on Gonzalo’s killer. Back at home, Juan hears a knock at the door and the statue arrives for dinner. The final scene is probably the most challenging to stage, because the statue invites Juan to move a stone that covers a tomb, and Juan mentions that he would be happy to also move the ‘pillars’ there as well. Servants bring on two chairs, and Juan and his servant are served dishes of snakes, scorpions and fingernails and wine made of gall and vinegar. The statue shakes hands with Juan and he dies, claiming he is ‘on fire’ and ‘burning’. As he dies he falls into the tomb, and Don Gonzalo disappears with him.

Cast number

Minimum	Maximum
8 males	15 males
4 females	5 females
12 (total)	20 (total)

Characters

• DON DIEGO TENORIO, An old man, Don Juan’s father
• DON JUAN TENORIO
• CATALINÓN, Don Juan’s servant
• THE KING OF NAPLES
• DUKE OCTAVIO
• DON PEDRO TENORIO
• THE MARQUIS OF LA MOTA
• DON GONZALO DE ULLOA
• THE KING OF CASTILE
• DOÑA ANA DE ULLOA
• FABIO, Servant
• ISABELA, Duchess
• TISBEA, Fisherwoman
• BELISA, Peasant
• ANFRISO, Fisherman
• CORIDÓN, Fisherman
• GASENO, Peasant
• BATRICIO, Peasant
• RIPIO, Servant
• AMINTA, Peasant woman

Entry written by Kathleen Jeffs. Last updated on 10 March 2011.

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