Saturday night, the roles will be reversed when the NIU School of Theatre and Dance faculty members present a concert reading of George Bernard Shaw’s “Don Juan in Hell.”

“You can only teach theater so long before you succumb to the temptation to show the students what you can do,” said associate professor Robert Schneider. As the title role, Schneider will share the stage with assistant professor Stanton Davis as the Devil, associate professor Rick Poole as the Commander, and professor Deborah Robertson as Doña Ana.

The play originated as a scene in Shaw’s 1904 philosophic comedy, “Man and Superman,” but became a stand-alone hit after a memorable quartet of actors performed it in the ’50s.
In the scene, Shaw presents the idea that heaven and hell are as much dictated by personal tastes as mortal life. According to Schneider, Shaw imagines a heaven that has very few takers, populated mostly by workaholics and people who still believe they can make the earthly world a better place.

Don Juan, a famous scoundrel and seducer of women, is one of those takers, Schneider explains, because he has had his fill of the hedonistic lifestyle.

“He chooses to go to heaven,” Schneider said. “And of course, this is a public relations disaster for the Devil.”

The other characters, including two of his victims, try and talk Don Juan out of it, pointing out that nearly everyone feels much more comfortable in hell.

Schneider said the piece has been compared to a doubles tennis match. “It’s a meeting of four expertly-formed characters who never fault a serve – and it’s funny!”

”I’m tremendously excited,” he added. “I’ve wanted to do this ever since I saw Ricardo Montalban play Don Juan in the 1970s,” Schneider said.

Out of four cast members, only Davis has experience with the piece; he previously played the Commander.

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