CAMT Reviews

• New Yorker, June 28, 2007, Once There Was A Village

• New York Times, November 4, 2007, Hamlet

• The Village Voice, January 30th, 2007, Once There Was A Village

• New York Times, June 9, 2006 Bass Saxophone

• New York Times, April 18, 2003, Don Juan

• United Press International, March 8, 2002, Hamlet

• New York Times, December 28, 2001, A Christmas Carol, Oy Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa

• Louis Lopardi, July 23, 2001, Richard III

• Talkin' Broadway, July 17, 2001, Richard III

• The Dance Insider, April 11, 2001, Prose of the Transsiberian and of Little Joan of France

• New York Times, March 31, 2000, Johannes Dokchtor Faust

• New York Times, October 22, 1999, The Fisherman's Clever Daughter

• New York Times, January 15, 1999, Rusalka, the Little Rivermaid

• Time Magazine, November 17, 1997, The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre

April 18, 2003

FAMILY FARE

The Devil and the Don

By LAUREL GRAEBER

any parents would think twice before taking their children to anything called "Don Juan, or, Wages of Debauchery." But this is neither a long opera (though it does use Mozart's music) nor an NC-17 movie. As the promotional material explains, "Don Juan's womanizing is done at the Warner Brothers cartoon level." And when he strings along his conquests, he does so literally.

That's because this don is a star of the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater, which is again presenting a hilarious interpretation of a classic. Conceived and directed by Vit Horejs (pronounced Veet HOR-shezz), the theater's founder, this version is based on a play put on by puppeteers in the old country. So you will hear Czech folk singing as well as a few "Don Giovanni" arias thrown in. But the show is mostly in English, and updated English at that.

"My credit cards are maxed out," Don Juan complains to his servant, Kasparek, a potbellied marionette in a red jumpsuit who looks like a cross between a Christmas elf and an overfed toddler. Kasparek assists, or rather hinders, Don Juan's evil doings, which here include three murders. The violence, though, is mostly offstage, and highly stylized.

Still, the 90-minute show is not for small children. Theresa Linnihan's ingenious sets feature an enormous skull and clawed hands that don't scare Don Juan but might terrify preschoolers. Children over 6, though, love the slapstick and the insults, which Don Juan apparently honed in second grade. (He calls Kasparek a "goofy guinea pig.")

Mr. Horejs and his troupe — Ms. Linnihan, Deborah Beshaw, Michelle Beshaw and Emily Wilson — also perform in costume, at times escorting the puppets into the audience. And how many versions of this story have you seen in which Don Juan romances a theatergoer?

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company