Don Juan Comes Back from the War was first performed at the Theatre of Courage, Vienna, in 1952. Duncan Macmillan’s version was first performed at the Finborough Theatre, London on 28 February 2012.
When Don Juan returns from the war he makes up for lost time with significant debauchery. However, he is no longer the man he once was and soon finds himself hospitalised. A woman, distraught over her daughter’s death in an asylum for which she blames Don Juan, tries to stab him. He escapes from the hospital to try and find her but mistakenly arrives on the doorstep of the MOTHER and her young daughter. Don Juan had an affair with the MOTHER when she was a girl and, in this monologue, she describes to him how much pain his departure caused her.
look at you.
She drinks.
Stood in my kitchen
,
I’m just one of hundreds aren’t I?
thousands maybe.
But to me, you’re
,
He sits down near her. She smiles.
,
you were so handsome.
She touches his face.
Came along at just the wrong time.
Parents fighting.
Body changing.
Summer.
And you.
The whole universe.
Forbidden. A gentile.
Like staring into the sun.
I thought
this is life. This is living.
I was valued. Priceless.
The words you used. A rich man talking about love.
,
When you were gone it was a punch in the stomach.
Heard stories of you with other girls.
Friends. Sisters of friends. Mothers of friends.
I’d thought you were mine.
She smiles. She takes her hand away from his face. She drinks, looks at the glass.
Tried to get that feeling back. With anybody.
Boys.
Passed around.
A dish rag.
Undeserving of real affection. Distrustful of it.
After three or four it was a pride thing.
This is what I am.
Ten. Twenty.
Thrown out of home.
Fifty. Sixty.
Hated every one of them.
Willing them to prove me wrong.
None did.
Not for years.
Then
got lucky. Her dad.
He was a good one.
Stuck around.
Dealt with my past.
My anger.
Listened.
I cried it all out and he held me. Dried my cheeks
with his thumbs.
He’d lie awake grinding his teeth. Breathing through
his nose.
He’d rip your throat out if he was here.