Molière in the Park has been putting on free, professionally staged Molière in Brooklyn for years, and this season’s closer is Don Juan — the playwright’s most subversive script, staged outdoors at the Lefrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park. The run is five nights long and nearly over: Sunday Sept. 13, Monday Sept. 14, and Tuesday Sept. 15 are what’s left, 7:00–9:00 p.m. each night.
The practical details:
- Where: Lefrak Center at Lakeside, Prospect Park, Brooklyn
- When: Nightly through Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
- Cost: Free
- RSVP: Encouraged — sign up through the Parks listing or the Eventbrite page; questions to info@moliereinthepark.org
- Production: Translated by Stephen Wadsworth, directed by Drama Desk nominee Lucie Tiberghien
- Live music: Original cello score by Drama Desk–nominated composer Johnathan Moore
The play itself is a single day in the life of a man who has already ruined several people’s lives. Don Juan has abandoned Elvira, whom he seduced into breaking her vows and marrying him; he and his sidekick Sganarelle then spend the day running into everyone he’s betrayed, while he keeps seducing, mocking religion, and daring the universe to respond. It ends in a reckoning, and the script mixes comedy and the supernatural on the way there — which is exactly the kind of material that reads well under open sky at dusk.
Free theater with a real director and translator attached is worth the trip across the boroughs, and this one has two evenings left after tonight. Bring a layer; the lakeside gets cool once the sun drops.