Graduating drama students at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama this week stage the Irish premiere of The Last Days of Don Juan.
The Tirso de Molina play, in a new version by Nick Dear, will be performed in the new DIT Theatre, Rathmines Road, Dublin, through Saturday. It will showcase not only the acting talents of the 18 drama students involved, but the newly adapted theatre too.
The Last Days of Don Juan retells the great legend of Don Juan de Tenorio, a young noble in the Spanish court in Seville, completely obsessed with women. He lives a scandalous life and enjoys the chase and the conquest, seducing and abandoning women - aided and abetted by his trusted servant, who is a woman in this version of the play, adding a certain moral dilemma to proceedings. Presumably it's not giving too much away to reveal that he meets a sort of heavenly retribution.
According to course director Victor Merriman, all the resources of the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama are being used in staging the play, which also features original music by Michael Holohan. It also represents a chance for the drama students to work with a fully professional production team. The play's vastly experienced director, Susie Kennedy, has just completed a six-month residency in the US as assistant director to Joe Dowling at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.
The performance courses on offer at the Conservatory of Music and Drama are currently undergoing major development, with the new DIT theatre space of a particularly high standard. The institute hopes the venue will attract professional performers.
The Last Days of Don Juan runs nightly at 8 p.m. until Saturday at DIT Theatre, Rathmines Road, Dublin (tel: (01) 402 3568). Tickets: £5, or £2.50 for students, unemployed and OAPs.
