“Don Juan in Hell” might – or might not – win you over

"Don Juan in Hell" is performed as a "chamber concert for voices," with minimal staging to draw all the attention to Shaw's rich use of language. Photo credit Troy Freund.

Even if I wrote everything I could possibly write about Boulevard Theatre’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell, it wouldn’t be as ponderously long as the show itself. Yet if it were my most eloquent and beautiful review of my career, it’d likely still pale before the resplendence of Shaw’s prose in performance.

If either side of that paragraph strongly resonates, here’s the Cliff’s Notes version: If you want to simply bask in the celebration of Shaw for Shaw’s sake, you should run to Boulevard for the chance to see seven talented performers exploring one of his most verbose, intellectual works. And if the idea of listening to two hours and 20 minutes of Don Juan arguing the pros and cons of heaven and hell horrifies you, don’t feel guilty going the other direction.

Don Juan (Jason Will) spends much of the play arguing for the superiority of heaven to hell with the Devil and the Commander (David Flores and Mark Bucher, not pictured), for his love Dona Ana's (Marion Araujo) benefit. Photo credit Troy Freund.

If you’re in between, stay tuned. That’s how I felt watching Don Juan in Hell, continually unsure whether I liked it or not. I certainly enjoyed the conceit. After an acclaimed 1950s revival, Boulevard staged Don Juan in Hell as a “chamber concert for voices.” Actors, seated in plush chairs for much of the show, read their lines from scripts on music stands. The modern dress and static production put Shaw’s words center stage. That is either the greatest of pros or the greatest of cons.

Those words take the form of a drawn-out, multifaceted discussion between Don Juan (Jason Will) and the Devil (David Flores), with Don Juan’s former lover Doña Ana (Marion Araujo, and Mary Buchel early in the play) and her father the Commander (Mark Bucher). The Devil and Commander appeal to Don Juan to stay in hell, a place of love, beauty and pleasure, rather than leave for heaven, where harsh, dull reality is the norm and philosophy is the only goal. They address earthly definitions of morality, matrimony, fidelity, courage and happiness on the way.

Shaw’s words don’t sell themselves. Actor charisma must boost them, and the Boulevard’s cast has it in spades. As the primary debaters, Will and Flores show it best. Their grandiloquence befits Shaw’s words. Araujo and Buchel are equally eloquent, while Bucher is too busy being a smartass to worry about eloquence. I mean that as a compliment – a big one. For all its high-mindedness, this ridiculously funny play abounds with humor both high- and lowbrow. Bucher leads the charge.

But I’ll tell you no lies: More than once I found myself drifting off and just letting Shaw’s words pass without much comprehension. While the subject matter is interesting, the combination of fancy words, long sentences and those smooth, charming voices make the play a lullaby as often as a symphony.

"The Musician," Donna Kummer (L), and "The Chanteuse," Ellie Quint (R), performed pieces by Noel Coward, a brilliant albeit insane addition by co-directors Mark Bucher and David Flores. Photo credit Troy Freund.

The addition of a half dozen songs by British dramatist and composer Noël Coward, performed by the cast with talented pianist Donna Kummer and singer Ellie Quint helped a lot. By any measurement, this is absolutely insane. While Shaw and Coward are both two of the most successful British playwrights ever, their creative periods largely didn’t overlap – Shaw wrote Don Juan in Hell when Coward was 4 – and I couldn’t find a scrap of evidence to suggest what in the world gave co-directors Flores and Bucher the idea to add the songs in.

But it works, despite all logic and reason. The songs thematically link to the individual arguments in Shaw’s text, and break up the relentless dialogue. Quint has the bulk of the songs (Bucher and Flores have one solo each), as she should – her voice is a gem, pure and simple.

If you’re still not convinced one way or the other, go to Don Juan in Hell anyway. I could ramble on about how nice it is to see a different sort of theater piece, even if it isn’t always effective, or about how there’s always something to be gained from experiencing the work of a dramatist as good as Shaw, but I’ll let the Boulevard team do the arguing for me. They’re good at it.

The Boulevard Theatre’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell runs through Dec. 2. Tickets are $23 to $25, and can be ordered at (414) 744-5757 or online.