Dour Don leads flawed but intriguing ‘Juan’

Hanging out with Don Juan is usually the ticket to a good time. Smooth-talking and effortlessly charismatic, he’s a magnetic force. Attractive people are drawn to him; parties spring up around him.

How, then, could he turn out to be so dour in the Stephen Wadsworth adaptation of Moliere’s “Don Juan”?

In this retelling of the Spanish legend, Don Juan -- a character well known for flying in the face of convention -- is the starting point for a satire of morality in the age of France’s King Louis XIV. Like ax to oak, the play chips away at the religious and social system upholding the divine right of kings and, with it, the code that benefited a privileged few at everyone else’s expense. Written early in the Age of Reason and during the gestation of democracy, it speaks candidly about the awful behavior of people in positions of authority -- a subject that’s bound to resonate at any time, in any place, under any government.

This got the play into immediate trouble in 1665, further discouraging Moliere after the outcry over his satire of hypocrisy in “Tartuffe.” Censors demanded deep cuts in “Don Juan” and, after only a month of performances, it essentially disappeared. Even today, it remains all but unknown alongside such Moliere plays as “The Misanthrope” or “The Miser.” Wadsworth, who has done so much to rekindle appreciation for the wry comedies of Marivaux, adapted “Don Juan” under a commission from Seattle Repertory Theatre. He also directed the 2002 premiere staging, now re-created at the Old Globe.

Written in a style that echoes Moliere’s and yet sounds familiar to present-day ears, Wadsworth’s “Don Juan” begins much as we’d expect. Don Juan (Adam Stein) and his put-upon servant, Sganarelle (Andrew Weems), are on the run from Donna Elvira (Francesca Faridany), the latest of Don Juan’s many romantic conquests. Out of hearing, Sganarelle describes his master as “a dangerous man” and frets that “the wrath of God is sure to catch up with him someday.” Don Juan isn’t the least bit worried, however. Addicted to the sport of romance yet allergic to matrimony, he cavalierly states: “Constancy works only for those who don’t think.” Slightly built and juvenile in appearance, Stein’s Don Juan is more spoiled adolescent than world-weary rake. The approach takes some getting used to but gives the character psychological heft that’s lacking in other versions.

Also intriguing is Wadsworth’s re-creation of staging techniques from Moliere’s day, achieved in collaboration with designers Kevin Rupnik (sets), Anna R. Oliver (costumes) and Joan Arhelger (lights). Centuries before our all-too-literal age of spectacle, European designers achieved amazing effects by painting forced perspectives onto flat canvases. Here, a seashore comes complete with surging waves, and the colonnaded halls of Don Juan’s mansion seem to stretch on forever.

Drawn to Don Juan’s anarchic spirit, Moliere used him to satirize every major institution of his day, from religion to politics, as well as hypocrisy in all its forms. Yet in Wadsworth’s retelling, at least, “Don Juan” fires at so many targets that they all sort of blur together, and the laugh-out-loud comedy quickly dissipates.

It’s difficult to ascertain, in the end, whether Don Juan is the hero or the villain of this tale. Perhaps that’s as it should be. As his party of a life reaches last call, the earth gapes wide and swallows him whole, as punishment for his many sins. Or, maybe, because he told the truth.

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‘Don Juan’

Where: Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego

When: Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 7 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays 2 and 7 p.m.

Ends: June 12

Price: $19-$52

Contact: (619) 234-5623

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes