Don Juan [Drama On 3]

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 `chaste?? 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 Haid退e, until the two of them fall passionately in love. We see this idyll destroyed by the return of Haid退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

Haid退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 BBC Radio 3

The amazing adventures of young Don Juan: comedy, tragedy and sexual intrigue.

The story opens with young Juan's seduction, at the hands of a `chaste` 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 Haid退e, until the two of them fall passionately in love. We see this idyll destroyed by the return of Haid退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.....Edward Bennett

Don Juan.....Matthew Tennyson

Donna Julia.....Pippa Nixon

Haid退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

Picture credit : The Finding of Don Juan by Haid退e by Ford Madox Brown.

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust, licensed under CCO