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War and other atrocities
‘Don Juan’ comes Home from Iraq' at the Wilma (2nd review)
Dan Rottenberg
The Don Juan of classical literature and opera is a lothario whose debauchings of innocent maidens lead to his death and eternal damnation. In Paula Vogel’s 21st-century allegory, Don Juan is more victim than victimizer: He’s a Marine captain traumatized by four tours in Iraq, perpetually plagued by two centuries’ worth of nightmare visions of war, death, and dismemberment as he tries to find his way back to “normal” life in modern-day Philadelphia. In such a context his past sexual conquests of the women under his command seem like relatively minor transgressions, which is the least of the problems of this unrelievedly angry two-hour diatribe.
Vogel clearly knows a great deal about Iraq, the Marines, and Philadelphia, and she and director Blanka Zizka deserve credit for courageously dramatizing a subject — warfare and its aftermath — that most of us would rather ignore. But Don Juan Comes Home from Iraq is not so much a drama as a harangue, full of gunfire, explosions, repetitious histrionics, heavy-handed speeches (“You turned me into a carnivore in a city without meat!”), simulated sex, and predictable ironies — everything, in fact, but a dramatic arc or character development.
Let us stipulate here that war is hell, that it always produces unintended consequences, that America’s unprovoked invasion of Iraq was a tragic mistake, and that the people responsible should answer for their crimes. If I had the power, I would condemn Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and their fellow chicken hawks to watch Don Juan Comes Home from Iraq every night until the end of time. But Vogel’s play preaches to the already converted — the victims of the Bushies’ manipulations. Haven’t we been punished enough?
For a review by Steve Cohen, click here.
For a review by Naomi Orwin, click here.
What, When, Where
Don Juan Comes Home from Iraq. By Paula Vogel; Blanka Zizka directed. Through April 20, 2014 at Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St. (at Spruce), Philadelphia. 215-546-7824 or www.wilmatheater.org.
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