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Dom Juan or The Feast with the Statue (Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre) is French play based on the tale of Don Juan, by the famous French playwright Molière. It is the last part in Molière's trilogy of hypocrisy, after The School for Wives and Tartuffe. It was first performed on February 15, 1665, in the Palais-Royal hall.

The play's title and the name of the main character are often mistakenly translated as "Don Juan". The spelling "dom" was used at the time in France as an abbreviation of "dominus". This makes the title "Dom Juan" an indication that Molière's play is not really the story of a remote situation in Spain, but actually a satire of what was going on at the time in France. "Dom" also represents a title of nobility in Spanish.

The play was originally written in prose and withdrawn after 15 performances after attacks by Molière's critics, who considered he was offending religion and the king by eulogizing a libertine. Sganarelle, Dom Juan's valet, is the only character who speaks up for religion, but his particuliar brand of superstitious catholicism is used more as a comic device than as a foil to his master's free-thinking. As a result, Molière was ordered to delete a certain number of scenes and lines which, according to his censors, made a mockery of their faith. A severely edited text of the play was published for the first time in 1682, and it was revived only in 1687, after Molière's death, in a versified and softened version by Thomas Corneille (brother of Pierre Corneille). Corneille's adaptation was the only version of the play performed for nearly a century and a half^[1]. The play was produced in its original, uncensored version for the first time in 1884.

Molière drew his inspiration from the main character of a work by Tirso de Molina called El Burlador de Sevilla y Convidado de piedra. Unlike Molière's hero, the Spanish Dom Juan repents end asks to be confessed before he dies.

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Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre

1. ^ [1].

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