Don Juan, Bitter Memory of Me
Original title: Don Juan, memoria amarga de mí
Trailer
Synopsis
An old Don Juan, helpless and near death, lives out his last days in a convent in the care of a young friar who knows nothing of the pleasures of life. Confronted with his past, the legendary seducer — once the very symbol of absolute individuality — meets death and discovers feelings he never knew: dependence, fear, remorse. Miquel Gallardo, alone on stage, plays the friar and manipulates three life-sized puppets, so that the actor is constantly doubling himself in front of the audience. The text, by Gallardo and Paco Bernal, is a free version drawn from Tirso de Molina, José Zorrilla, Molière and Josep Palau i Fabre. Premiered by the Catalan company Pelmànec at the Titirimundi festival in Segovia in 2009.
Context & Trivia
The three life-sized puppets — the old Don Juan among them — were built by Martí Doy and are manipulated in full view by Miquel Gallardo, who also plays the friar; the constant doubling between actor and figures is what critics singled out as the show's technical feat. Directed by María Castillo, who won second prize at the 14th Certamen de Directoras de Escena in Torrejón de Ardoz for this production. By December 2010, when it reached the Sala Beckett in Barcelona, the show had already given about 80 performances across Catalonia and Spain. Set by Xavier Erra, lighting by Fiorella Giudicessi, music by Pep Pascual, costumes by Susana Santos and Roser Puig, video projections by Armand López. Pelmànec later reused the same one-actor-and-life-sized-puppets format in Diagnóstico: Hamlet (2011).
Puppeteers
Miquel Gallardo
Puppet design
Martí Doy
Puppet companies
Companyia Pelmànec
Puppet building
Martí Doy
Direction
María Castillo
Writing
Miquel Gallardo, Paco Bernal
Cast
Miquel Gallardo
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