We have seen Dom Juan

Her Dom Juan was highly anticipated by the Parvis audience. Having already revisited Molière with her Trissotin ou les femmes savantes, which successfully resonated with the text, freeing it from misogyny however anachronistic it may be, and having illuminated Mikhail Bulgakov's The Flight with her own personal history, she returned to offer her reinterpretation of Dom Juan. A difficult undertaking, because, like any monumental work, the line between respecting the text and what the staging actually offers is fraught. It's also difficult because we have in mind countless productions, some we've seen, others not, such as those by Louis Jouvet, Jean Vilar, Antoine Vitez, and Patrice Chéreau, and, closer to our time, Daniel Mesquich and Marcel Maréchal. Presenting a new Dom Juan is both a guarantee of a full house and the risk of not finding the unique perspective that gives this new production its distinctive brilliance. It is therefore with equal parts attraction to the theatrical monument, curiosity to see what Macha Makeïeff will do with it, and a touch of skepticism after seeing so many directors paralyzed by the imposing presence of the play. The two and a half hours of the performance will take us on a journey between these different perspectives. Macha Makeïeff plays with the modernity of the text to make it resonate with our era and its social norms, both rigid and under attack. She uses modernity sparingly in her staging to shake up the monument just enough to make it vibrate anew. But the imposing presence of the play is too daunting for her to dare go further. And her Don Juan remains only halfway to what it promises. It's like a compromise between classicism and modernity that appeals to the widest audience. Without truly satisfying everyone.