By Eric Marchese | Special to the NB Indy
The entertainment world is rife with remakes, reworkings and new versions of existing stories. Some, like “Quixote Nuevo,” put a surprising spin on a familiar, time-honored tale.
The lead-off to South Coast Repertory’s milestone 60th season is playwright Octavio Solis’ new version of Miguel de Cervantes’ more than 400-year-old epic novel “Don Quixote.”
The Southern California premiere, deftly directed by Lisa Portes and starring Herbert Siguenza, is a co-production in association with Seattle Repertory Theatre and Portland Center Stage.
A co-founder of Culture Clash, Siguenza did his first SCR show in 1988; later, in the teens, he was in two productions teaming the Chicano-Latino troupe with the Costa Mesa theater company.
Here, Siguenza plays Jose Quijano, a retired professor of literature who specialized in the works of Cervantes – in particular, “Don Quixote.” His family members, therapist and priest push to move him into assisted living, which pushes him over the edge, causing him to believe that he is Cervantes’ valiant knight-errant.
In this case, he’s Don Quixote de la Plancha (the name of his fictional Texas hometown), and he sets out on a quest to right wrongs perpetrated against the poor and defenseless. What really drives his mission, though, is his determination to find Dulcinea, the childhood love whose loss has been a lifelong obsession.
Among the many clues to her identity are Quijano telling sidekick Manny (Ernie González, Jr.) she’s “someone I hurt long ago” and a series of flashbacks showing the interaction of the younger Quijano and Dulcinea, the characters represented by full-size puppets.
Solis’s vision of the time-honored story is authentically native to the U.S. and the Chicano strains infused into American culture and heritage for centuries now – elements reinforced by Efren Delgadillo, Jr.’s rock-dominated scenic design and a bilingual script audiences not fluent in Spanish should be able to follow without much difficulty.
Siguenza’s Quixote knight get-up is both ludicrously funny and pathetic: as body armor, an inverted silver bowl strapped to his chest, with rusted, mangled license plates covering his shoulders. Mere kneepads are his legs’ flimsy protection, and his headgear, “the Golden Helmet of Mambrino,” is an aluminum bedpan cadged from a helpless old woman.
Acting as the steed for this self-proclaimed “Grand Knight of the Chicanos” is an adult tricycle, its handlebars adorned with a horse’s skull. As in Cervantes, this noble creature is dubbed Rosinante.
In just one of the deluded old man’s more surreal visions, his psychotherapist, Dr. Campos (Maya Malan-Gonzalez), appears to him as Dulcinea, clad in red and blue, a rose in her hair and a cigarette in hand. The tantalizing siren beckons to him, then the mirage fades.
As much of the story unfolds at the Texas-Mexico border, Solis doesn’t miss a chance to show up the fiercely anti-immigrant posturings of the Trump administration. Quixote is told he’ll have to contend with border patrol agents, motion sensors, cameras, drones, and “the wall,” and when the name of Mar-a-Lago is evoked, he exclaims “the Evil Enchanter!”
With Quijano’s escapades punctuated by blasts of mayhem and flights of fancy. this episodic updating doesn’t have the straight-ahead thrust of its literary source or of other Quixotes we’ve seen.
Manny’s description of Don Quixote synchs up with Quijano’s self-image as a heroic, gallant protector of the oppressed – yet Quijano’s fantasy doesn’t extend far beyond his own imagination. No one around him really believes it, not even Manny.
The mysterious, black-clad character Calaca (Raúl Cardona) is frequently accompanied by a sextet of skull-masked specters who function as the story’s chorus and symbolize Quijano’s mortality. These figures are the clearest evidence of Solis placing Cervantes’ epic tale against the cultural and mythological underpinnings of Mexico – especially those tying in with death – and Helen Q. Huang’s exquisite costumes, puppets and masks reinforce this.
The use of puppets lends a fanciful, fable-like quality to this “new Quixote,” and while it isn’t a musical, it features original Tejano music composed by David R. Molina and Eduardo Robledo, directed here by Jesse J. Sanchez and choreographed by Marissa Herrera.
Director Portes’ work yields a typically expansive SCR Main Stage production, and she and her outstanding cast aren’t overwhelmed by the design visuals and layered thematic elements imposed upon them. The behind-the-scenes quick changes are so meticulously worked out that you think you’re watching 15 or more actors when there are in fact just nine.
Siguenza’s protagonist isn’t the feeble, doddering old fool of Quixotes past. Yes, he might be a bit of a doofus, but this Quixote is vigorous, and able to hold his own against much younger, much tougher men.
Gonzalez, Jr. is a good-natured Manny who essentially tolerates Quijano’s delusions, accepts being called “Sancho Panza” and, as such, acts as a sturdy support Quijano can rely upon.
Photo by Jenny Graham, courtesy South Coast Repertory
Calaca vocalizes the dark, anti-immigrant ethos so heavily prevalent in American politics since 9/11, and the slim, angular Cardona aptly glints with menace in the role. He does, however, essay other characters – yet even, for example, when portraying a refugee in tattered clothing fleeing the border patrol in terror, Cardona is an intense actor who brings the darkest shadings to “Quixote Nuevo.”
These three are simply superb, given laudable and often colorful support by Malan-Gonzalez, Sol Castillo, Laura Crotte, Viviana Garza, Alexis B. Santiago and Lakin Valdez.
As “Quixote Nuevo” draws to a close, we witness Quijano drifting into and out of dementia. The sight of him acceding to going into an assisted living facility, a painful acceptance of harsh reality, evokes tremendous pathos.
At the same time, Manny realizes that Quijano’s heroism, now more than ever, needs a champion – a concluding twist that adds to the dramatic heft and validity of this all-new “Quixote.”
Segerstrom Stage, South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Through Oct. 28. Running time (including intermission): Two hours, 40 minutes. Tickets: $29 to $105. Purchase / information: (714) 708-5500, www.scr.org.
