Don Juan as Sex Puppet

"Having passed the sexual revolution, we wanted to throw some questions back on the table," says a slightly nervous Judd Palmer, director of The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan, showcased at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts until Feb. 27.

In this case, the old ravisher Don Juan DeMarco is brought back from Hell to tell the story of his life, like old Jacob Marley to the Scrooges of modern sexual indiscretion. The play, performed by live actors, employs masks, elaborate costumes and puppet pieces to blur the lines between traditional marionette stagecraft and Vaudeville theatricality; in some cases, each actor holds and animates an arm, leg or even a set of breasts, creating separate characters entirely through their puppetry of prosthetics.

In fact, the main focus of the opening scenes is not the actor who plays old Juan, but rather his penis. Encased in a beautiful bronze chastity belt, his gleaming metallic member (his 'pennis') steals the show.

"We can do things with puppets that we can't do with humans because there is a step of removal," Palmer says.

Stroking his thick beard and speaking quickly, Palmer spared a few moments on opening night to explain that "Don Juan is one of those ur [archetypal] characters. Technically he's written down in the 17th century, but I think he has probably existed in the depths of our murky unconscious since we were living in caves. There's probably some cave man who had more than one girlfriend who pissed off all the others. That's the sort of character who puppets do really well."

He points out that some stories are difficult to animate without the proxy of a puppet, due to the audiences feelings; some stories become too personal to address directly. "What happens to the puppet becomes funny. It's like in animation, we can do the most horrible things to Wile E. Coyote, and it's funny, but if that were happening to a human or a real coyote, it would be traumatizing."

The stage is set simply, with four ornate cabinets topped with wooden feet and grotesque cherubs, reminiscent of confessional booths. These cabinets, which open on both sides, become the many scenes of Don Juan's sordid sexual escapades.

Palmer explains that the theatre troupe, the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, were inspired to create the Anguish from their own real-life examples of changing relationships and the Internet's influence on sexuality.

"There are a lot of different ways people are approaching relationships, monogamy, marriage; there's a lot of different ways people are thinking about that, but they're doing things off in obscure corners of the web, quietly."

A lot of male rock stars are modern day Don Juans, he notes, "but whether or not that role model is very healthy for us is up in the air. I think we're conflicted on a genetic level about what kind of person we're supposed to be. There's obviously some kind of genetic coding that says that the more you spread your seed around the healthier the tribe will be. At the same time, there's this other genetic encoding that says stay with the children, stay with the family."

'A summons from the otherworld, to let beat your ravenous heart'

In the play, Don Juan, played convincingly by a slightly creepy Duval Lang, has been burning in Hell for 500 years, unrepentant over his 1,000 or more conquests. He is brought forth from his eternal pyre by the demonic minions Don Brinsmead and Anne Lalancette and harried to center stage by their pitchforks.

His one chance at redemption is to perform a puppet-play with the denizens of Hell and revisit his life as a warning to the audience, who Juan is constantly falling in love with, despite the infernal consequences. Like a rose held in a box, yearning for the sun, he is rapt and helpless by the female form, explaining that he has fallen in love with every woman he ever met. He warns against his ways, even as he pines for hot-tubs full of "bi-curious thong models from Finland."

"It's not lustfulness, it's appreciation," implores Juan, as he lets "you in on a little man's secret... there's nothing wrong with yearning as long as you don't do anything about it."

And yearn he does. For the remainder of the play, Juan unleashes the torment of a heart tortured by lust and fidelity. He traces his life through childhood, where we learn that his mother was abandoned by his father after one hot night on the town. Her one wish for him was to respect womankind and not to do what his daddy has done. He grows up in the seminary, and finally, as an adult, he begins to unravel his destiny. He faces both sides of his nature, the beast and the lover, sometimes shown as a snorting bull's head on a tricycle, and sometimes as the prodigal son. Both are fought off with the stem of a rose.

His paramour, Maria, is played by a single, delicate mask with forlorn eyes, gracefully animated by Lalancette, still in demonic garb. Other women are portrayed as a tangle of disembodied arms, legs and breasts, giving us a sense of Juan's fixation. He describes one woman as nothing more than "buttocks, like a French galleon in full sail."

As he wages war with his nature, oscillating between allegiances to his imprisoned penis and his Satanic punishment, the audience is taken on an existential and hilarious journey through the underworld of human desire. Like a traveling circus, they are drawn through humor and then dragged through the deepest archetypes of lust and longing, touching on the spiritual and sexual themes that are two sides of the same coin.

'Strange dreams will slither into your mind, if you let them'

"Every generation has a different version of Don Juan; sometimes he is utterly sinister, sometimes he's a rapist, heartless seducer... sometimes he's a victim," explains Palmer. The current manifestation might remind us of Vancouver's sexually charged streets and the Olympic appeal of youth, virility and temporal glory. "His approach is mystical. He believes that there is a wondrous and beautiful love that we could feel for each other if we could just let [human nature] be."

The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan opened to a modest crowd of 32 who appeared delighted about the strange spectacle of sex and puppetry, laughing and gasping with abandon. The show is visually stunning in its simplicity, though on too many occasions Lang lapsed in his accent and his Don Juan fell into a too familiar vernacular while addressing the audience.

The score is incredible, however, and even though it was primarily recorded by the Spiritus Chamber Choir and lip synced by the players, most notably by the formidable Devil, Pityu Kenderes, every note rings true to the sexual or spiritual set and setting.

Overall, the play is destined to be overlooked due to its location at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby, far from the downtown centre of Olympic lights, but that's a shame. It is fascinating, informing us about essential aspects of human desire that could help us understand some of the reasons why we crave the fleeting rush of youth, beauty, and temporal glory.

As Judd Palmer puts it, "There's a certain way that the performer invests himself into this block of wood, and the audience does as well."

The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan runs until Feb. 27 and costs $30. The show starts at 8:00 p.m. More info can be found here.