Well, no, that's not all. That could never be all.
After the last play at McCarter sending me into a spiral of unhappiness and shivery terror at the state of things in general, this one made up for all of the terrible implications of the last one. Of course, had we all been living in the seventeenth century, I'm sure it would've had the same spine chilling effect as Humpty Dumpty. But we're not living in 1683, and the king of France is not going to censor us. (Long live the king)

Just- wow. Moliere came after Shakespeare, and since he was French, his stuff had to be translated...and that's probably why the dialogue made a bit more sense and didn't grate upon the ears so much as Shakespeare sometimes does. Not to disparage the Bard or anything- but four centuries do a lot to a language.

Beautiful sets, naturally. They were made of curtains, but that's to be expected in a play with so many scene changes. The beach scene had moving waves, though, and the walk through the forest...oh, god. I *died*, I was laughing so hard. They installed a treadmill in the stage and they just walked along...and skipped and twirled and Sganarelle was just- ah! Too funny to describe.

The acting was incredible, from Don Juan's careless intellectualism and courting to Sganarelle's attitude and groveling. (And he groveled so prettily, too..."No, I am not speaking to you, I am speaking to him! Now look at me when I'm speaking to you, you miserable termite of a man!")

The costumes were better than incredible, they were indescribable, and they were very accurate to the time period. Six layers if he wore a scarf, I swear. And we got to watch Don Juan get dressed. (He stripped down to his undergarments (also accurate period pieces) and got dressed again, giving us, the audience, a very nice view of him shirtless. Mmm.)

Well, you know how it goes- long live the king, and all that. The final scene was beautiful- madness and love and enraged bitterness...yum. And cross dressing. Gotta love the cross dressing. (I told you it was accurate to the time period, didn't I?)