Synopsis Follow the dramatic tale of the ingenious gentleman of La Mancha, Don Quixote and his comic adventures over land, sea and air in the search for an idealised world. Accompanied by his loyal sidekick, Sancho Panza, and inspired by stories of daring deeds, Don Quixote sets out to recreate an imaginary world and to convince his family, friends, and all he meets of its reality. But this is no ordinary journey as he gallops through seventeenth century Spain encountering a host of fantastical characters including star-crossed lovers, an army of giants, a cross-dressing priest, a royal duchess and even the devil himself.
Two paradoxes underpin the success of West Yorkshire Playhouse’s excellent version of Don Quixote. The design and some elements of the production are aggressively up-to-date, but Pablo Ley and Colin Teevan’s adaptation remains essentially faithful to the original. The director Josep Galindo and one of the writers are Spanish, but the production is home to some of the most poised and precise English speaking I’ve heard recently in the theatre.
Gideon Davey’s set consists of a long rectangle with computer screen, Coke machine and little else in front of folding glass panels which serve as mirror, window and screen on which are projected modern images of a journey through La Mancha. The characters assembled at the start wear imaginatively caricatured modern costumes, but the words we hear are the opening of Cervantes’ novel, given sonorous voice by Cervantes’ own narrator, Cide Hamete Benengeli (Andrew Dennis).
From time to time a book thuds onto the stage from the flies, emphasising the centrality of the text. Most intriguingly, the second half takes on board the question of artistic reality: an impostor appears and the validity of text and characters is questioned, though with a suitable lightness of touch.
The story-line follows the expected pattern. Don Quixote’s household tries to break him of his infatuation with the old romances by destroying his books, he takes to the road as knight errant with his squire Sancho Panza, is led into adventures by foolishness and increasing mania and is dragged back home by his friends and relations. Later, as a celebrated eccentric, he becomes the object of mockery and humiliation. Finally, he realises all is illusion and returns home to die.
The narrative method, however, is anything but conventional. Galindo, Ley and Teevan are seldom explicit: one event happens, then another, and we must make sense of them. The manner of audience involvement is unusual: there’s no hectoring or badgering, but the audience is made complicit in the events as scenes are played out in Row L or the punters’ opinions are (apparently) canvassed.
It’s a very refreshing and stimulating approach, made more so by the fact that, despite the boisterous physical theatre, the central character’s fragile dignity is never compromised. As Don Quixote, Greg Hicks is memorably haunted, perhaps a little understated, but ultimately very moving, and Tony Bell’s perpetually surprised Sancho Panza matches him in innocence and wonderment. The remaining eight actors parade a sequence of sharply etched characters, carrying off increasingly bizarre costumes with aplomb.
Judging by some of the comments I have read elsewhere, this West Yorkshire Playhouse production of Don Quixote (which uses what has been described as a re-imagination of Cervantes' novel written by Pablo Ley and Colin Teevan) is not to everyone's taste. I make no apologies for my own high opinion of it, however, for this reaction was clearly shared by my fellow audience members, who gave the cast a very enthusiastic reception indeed in the curtain calls. Set firmly in the twenty-first century (even down to its clever contemporary take on what is probably the most famous episode in the book) the production nonetheless successfully captures the spirit of the seventeenth century original. That it does this in a surreal way, and one which combines spoken text, physical theatre, music and video, has clearly disconcerted some, but I would argue that this approach reflects, as it is surely intended to do, the fantastical nature of the novel. Moreover it creates an atmosphere in which the audience really does have no idea what is going to happen next, adding greatly to the excitement of the occasion. Leading the cast of ten is Greg Hicks, who gives his usual magnificent performance in the title role, clearly relishing its more physical elements and depicting Don Quixote's warmth and charm as well as the seriousness with which he undertakes his knightly quests and the dignity with which he invariably responds to the taunts and tricks of others. His portrayal makes us question the boundaries between reality and illusion and between sanity and madness, and he captures the tragedy not only of Don Quixote's death but also of the disillusionment which precedes it. Tony Bell gives a funny and heart-warming performance as Sancho Panza, who may have initially accompanied Don Quixote on his adventures in the hope of personal gain, but whose loyalty to his master eventually leads him to a true understanding of his philosophy; and it is clear they come to regard each other with a mutual affection. The rest of the cast play a multiplicity of roles with great enthusiasm, changing characters as easily as they change costumes. It is not necessary to know the book in detail to enjoy the show, but some idea of the story, and of the history of the novel's composition, will give an added dimension to your appreciation of it. Above all, though, it should be approached in the eclectic and adventurous spirit in which it is grounded; if you can accept it on its own terms you will be rewarded with a theatrical experience that is not only unusual but also superbly staged and performed. - Janet Polson
Whatsonstage.com - Discount London theatre tickets, theatre news and reviews, Theatre videos, Theatre discussion, National Theatre Listings. Covering London's West End, all of Theatreland and all UK theatre. The best
for London Theatre Ticket Discounts.
