Don Quixote at Synetic Theatre

My cousin is the one with blue/green hair.

In this scene Sancho, who is on the platform

with a microphone, is presiding as a fake-governor

over the court. My cousin is part of the actual court

which is playing a joke on Sancho by letting

him rule in cases. At this point in the story

Sancho has just ruled against her in favor of

the guy standing just behind her.

Because of my cousin, I have now been able to attend four plays for free in the DC/Baltimore metro area, including All My Sons in Baltimore, Cymbeline in Laurel, Penelope in DC, and now Don Quixote at the Synetic Theatre in Arlington (next to Crystal City metro station). It was the 'pay-what-you-can' night, which is basically a free night. Technically, the show had not opened yet, so this night was like a dress rehearsal in front of a non-traditional audience. This performance allowed the actors to see how an audience would respond to certain scenes and jokes before they opened a couple days later. There were a few glitches here and there that the director would later fix, but I didn't notice anything too serious. Overall, the acting was very good and very entertaining. The characters playing Don Quixote and Sancho were quite humorous. Also, I had never seen this type of 'physical theatre.' The Synetic Theatre is supposed to be the premier DC venue for physical theatre. It seems as though this type of theatre is a mix of gymnastics and dance, but it's not as exuberant as Cirque du Soleil. Though the large gymnastic dance moves are very much part of the show, there is still a lot more regular acting and story-telling than in dance of gymnastic performances.

I'm always interested in how playwrights and artists present Don Quixote on the stage and in movies. I read the book in its entirety in the original Spanish as part of an independent study class I created for myself my last year in undergrad. Cervantes wrote the novel in 1605 and 1615 in order to ridicule the chivalric novels of his era, which are similar to today's unrealistic romance novels. This novel is a brilliant work of literature because Cervantes successfully destroyed an entire genre that had been incredibly popular in Spain before 1605. In order to show how absurd these stories were, Cervantes created a character who lived in the early 1600s who read all of these books, went crazy, and started acting like a chivalric knight. The series of ensuing adventures mock what other authors had written in their chivalric novels. There are also numerous 'mistakes' purposely put into the novel because the authors of chivalric novels would quickly write one new novel after another without properly editing and revising their works. Therefore, Sancho's wife has multiple names in different parts of the story; chapters are numbered incorrectly; it's always a sunny summer even though the story has been going on for several months. The over-the-top mockery even includes an entire short chivalric novel which Don Quixote retells; this story has nothing to do with anything else in the novel and doesn't further the plot (except to mock chivalric novels more). After the Spaniards read Don Quixote, they couldn't handle reading chivalric novels again. They would read a new story and think, "I remember reading something like this in Don Quixote, and it was ridiculous." I can't think of another author who has so thoroughly destroyed an entire literature genre the same way Cervantes did.

(I should also note that Cervantes was criticizing the Spanish government in the novel, but in this post I'm concentrating on his critique on his fellow authors.)

Cervantes' mockery of idealism doesn't translate well onto the movie or stage. Modern audiences want to escape from reality; movies and plays are supposed to make us feel better about ourselves. Americans especially don't like to see a movie that has a sad ending. Don Quixote doesn't fit well into this modern culture. His entire purpose is to show the ridiculousness of idealism so that people will snap back into reality. At the end of the novel he becomes sane again and rebukes his old chivalric ways and makes everyone around him promise that they will never again read these ridiculous stories. Most playwrights ignore this part of the novel and rewrite the story for modern culture. One of the most flagrant examples of this is the musical version of Don Quijote Man of La Mancha and its most important song, "Impossible Dream." The movie version of the musical from 1972 made this interpretation of the novel and this song even more popular. The lyrics say, "To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go, to right the un-rightable wrong, to love pure and chaste from afar, to try when your arms are too weary, to reach the unreachable stars- this is my quest! To follow that star no matter how hopeless! To fight for the right without question or pause! To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause!" These lyrics can be inspirational, and most people are more familiar with these lines than with anything that is actually in the novel. The great problem is... this isn't what Cervantes wrote. In fact, this song spits in the face of what Cervantes wrote. He was mocking this idealistic line of thinking, but stage and movie versions of the novel usually present the more optimistic, idealistic version instead of the real one. Now many people today believe that Don Quixote was an inspirational hero to follow, not a lunatic to rebuke. When I was studying the novel, I had multiple people look at me all confused when I tried to tell them what Cervantes was doing with his work. "But... I thought Don Quixote was all about dreaming the impossible dream, fighting the unbeatable foe." More times than not, people will quote me the musical and not the novel.

So does the Synetic Theatre version of Don Quixote follow to the actual novel? Well, yes and no. It follows the novel much more than the musical Man of La Mancha. It is quite obvious that Don Quixote is crazy and that his attempts to improve others' lives actually makes their lives worse. For instance, in one scene he frees a group of prisoners who deserve to be prisoners. After he frees them, they reign havoc on the countryside around them. That is very close to the actual novel. I was actually impressed with this accuracy. There are certain artistic liberties. For instance, the great antagonist from the Synetic play is rarely mentioned in the novel; when he is mentioned, it is in passing. Also, though Cervantes regularly mentions Dulcinea, Don Quixote rarely actually talks to her. They may share a total of a few words with each other. She is more a figment in his imagination than a significant character in her own right. In the play, Dulcinea is a much more important character who actually has numerous lines and shows up in several scenes. However, the ending was a bit confusing. It practically has two endings. The first one follows the novel fairly well; Don Quixote tells the audience to judge him as they may and not to refer to him as Don Quixote any longer; he has given up his chivalric ways. Then the stage just about goes dark. I thought that would be the end, and it would have been an appropriate somber ending which is roughly how the novel ends. But it seems as though the playwright couldn't help but add a happy, idealistic ending. A light opens back up on Dulcinea and Sancho. She praises Don Quixote for how he treated her, and so forth. Then he wakes back up from death and floats upward to Dulcinea. This second ending is very similar to how the musical Man of La Mancha ends. It felt as though the play had two endings- one a realistic portrayal of the novel, the other an idealized reworking from the 20th century. Then again, it may have felt like one ending for someone who hasn't read and studied Don Quixote.

Nevertheless, I strongly doubt any play or movie adaptation of the novel would be successful financially if it followed the book closely, even in theme. For instance, making Dulcinea a much bigger character in the script makes for a more entertaining 2-hour show. In that light, this play at Synetic was one of the best adaptations I've seen because it was able to adhere to the story, more or less, while still keeping the performance interesting and uplifting.

Here's a video from Synetic Theatre of Don Quixote: