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Don Juan
by Lord Byron
Adapted by Robin Brooks

Byron鈥檚 masterpiece, Don Juan, depicts young Juan鈥檚 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 鈥� in a quite uniquely Byronic mix - all three.

The story opens with young Juan鈥檚 seduction, at the hands of a 鈥渃haste鈥� 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茅e, until the two of them fall passionately in love. We see this idyll destroyed by the return of Haid茅e鈥檚 father, the pirate king Lambro, who sells Juan into slavery. In the slave market at Constantinople, we enjoy Juan鈥檚 discomfiture as he is led off by the eunuch in the service of a mystery buyer, forced to dress in women鈥檚 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鈥�..Julian Bleach
Don Juan.....Matthew Tennyson
Donna Julia.....Pippa Nixon
Haid茅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 麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 3

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

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust, licensed under CCO

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