Centre, from left: Steve Ross as Sancho Panza, Robin
Hutton as Aldonza and Tom Rooney as Miguel de Cervantes/Don Quixote. Photo by Michael
Cooper.
Reviewed by James
Karas
For its second musical, the
Stratford Festival has chosen Man of La Mancha and staged it in
the smaller Avon Theatre. It is a well done production with excellent singing
and it captures the spirit of the worlds of Don Quixote with a side glance at
his creator Miguel de Cervantes.
Man of La Mancha is a play-within-a-play in which Cervantes is
thrown into prison by the Spanish Inquisition for being an honest tax
collector. The other prisoners put the writer on trial and he defends himself
by reenacting the story of Don Quixote and his servant Sancho Panza.
It is a brilliant theatrical
device because the musical can be produced on a single set with whatever props
area available to Cervantes the prisoner and emphasizes the fact that all the
events are imagined by Don Quixote.
Tom Rooney becomes the lithe
agile, intelligent and quick-witted Cervantes, a poet by avocation, a tax
collector by profession and a prisoner by the whim of the Spanish Inquisition.
Cervantes in order to defend
himself at his trial by the other prisoners becomes Alonso Quijana, a poor man
from La Mancha. Rooney/Cervantes/Quijana puts on a beard, a wig and some makeup
and becomes a straggly, pathetic looking man who wants to be a Knight Errant
long after the age of chivalry. He becomes Don Quixote who is a dreamer, a fool,
an idealist, a madman and in fact an entire facet of humankind. Rooney does
superb work in representing the multifaceted man, indeed, men.
Sancho Panza represents another
facet of humanity, practical, loyal, sensible and with an instinct for
survival. Steve Ross is a natural comic and he is wonderful and hilarious as
the faithful Sancho.
The other prisoners tolerate or
play along with Cervantes in the telling of his tales. There is a stageful of
colourful characters all of them involved in the marvelous double illusion of
actors playing roles playing roles.
Aldonza is the rough-hewn
prisoner who becomes a serving woman and prostitute at the inn (a castle in
Quixote’s imagination) where Don Quixote and Sancho stop. Aldonza is
transformed into Dulcinea, the idealized woman of chivalric pursuit. Robin
Hutton shows all he rough edges of Aldonza but also displays “Dulcinea’s”
humanity.
The brigands in the jail and in
Don Quixote’s story are violent men who do not hesitate to abuse people and
probably rape Aldonza. The Governor of the prison/Innkeeper (Shane Carty) shows
decency in an indecent world.
Director Robert McQueen and
Designers Douglas Paraschul (set) and Dana Osborne (costumes) do not shy away
from the ugliness, cruelty and inhumanity of Cervantes’s world. That makes his
quest to set every wrong right and fight for justice all the more delusional,
ironic and touching.
The dingy prison shows a huge
windmill at the back, the eternal symbol of Don Quixote’s hopeless fight
against “the enemy” the dreaded Enchanter (Shawn Wright). The real world is
represented by a set of steps that hang above which are lowered when the
captain of the Inquisition descends among the prisoners.
Man of La Mancha has many musical numbers and dance routines and
they are done well. Like many other musicals, it has one song that stands out
and in this case it is the famous “The Impossible Dream.” It has become an
anthem for the pursuit of idealism, the fight against injustice, the dream of a
better world and conquest of imposable obstacles.
As you watch this exceptional
production of Man of La Mancha and its worlds of degradation, cruelty and
injustice, with its humour, illusions and delusions, with its songs and dance
routines, you will have a something to think about and be grateful for a
terrific night at the theatre.
___
Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman (book), Mitch
Leigh (music), Joe Darion (lyrics) opened on May 29 and will run in repertory until
October 11, 2014 at the Avon Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca
1-800-567-1600
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