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| Don Quixote's adventures eventually earn him knighthood -- bestowed by a lowly innkeeper. (MPR Photo/Marianne Combs) |
Minneapolis, Minn. — In 1605, Miguel de Cervantes produced what many consider to be the first great modern novel. To this day people around the world still feel its impact.
Just last year the Venezuelan government handed out one million copies of "Don Quixote" to its citizens -- for free -- to inspire them to help transform their country.
But Ben Krywosz, director of Nautilus Theater Co., says for most of his life author Cervantes was considered a total failure.
"He went through a number of occupations," says Krywosz. "He tried to make a living, he was kept as a slave a couple of times, he lost one of his hands in combat and had a very difficult life. He wrote a great many plays, and none of them survive. And then he wrote this novel toward the end of his life."
"Don Quixote" tells the story of an elderly, senile man who sees an army in a flock of sheep, giants in a row of windmills, and a dignified lady in a kitchen wench.
Quixote takes his money-grubbing assistant, Sancho Panza, on a series of adventures that can either be seen as heroic or downright inane, depending on your point of view. The novel makes fun of chivalric romance novels of the period, and simultaneously attacks both the Catholic Church and the Spanish government.
The book was a hit; Cervantes wrote a sequel shortly before he died, and his place in literary history was sealed.
Nautilus usually produces minimally staged readings of works in progress, but recent events inspired Ben Krywosz to direct the full production of the musical version of Don Quixote, "Man of La Mancha."
"For me, the piece is so much about aspiration and calling upon the energies we have, the grandeur of being human in order to fight that which we consider to be unjust," says Krywosz. "I saw in my friends and colleagues despair at the political situation, a feeling like there wasn't a way to effect change, that people weren't pleased with what was happening -- but didn't know what they could do about it."
Krywosz sets the play in the modern day. The prison cell evokes Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib more than the Spanish Inquisition.
At close to 1,000 pages, "Don Quixote" doesn't lend itself to being adapted for the stage. But, says director Ben Krywosz, Cervantes' life does. "Man of La Mancha" begins with Cervantes' imprisonment. He entertains the other prisoners with the story of Don Quixote and enlists them to act out the adventures.
In doing so, Krywosz says Cervantes accomplishes just what Don Quixote does in the story -- he transforms the world around him, and breaks down the prison walls that exist in his cellmates' minds. Krywosz hopes the musical can do that for his audiences.
"It really felt to me like an opportunity to revitalize people and give them a sense of hope," says Krywosz. "In difficult times, we do yearn for heroes who can somehow tap into that which is glorious about the human condition, and Quixote certainly does that."
To yearn for heroes may sound fine, but should we be yearning for a hero like Don Quixote -- a man whose undying optimism makes him look like a fool? Krywosz thinks so.
"Fools are the ones who can say what really is, who can point out the foibles of the establishment without fear of retribution -- because they are fools," says Krywosz. "I'm not suggesting that we all become Don Quixote, but Don Quixote is an example of somebody who has the courage to imagine what might be, and the strength and the ability and the single-mindedness to pursue his goals."
Krywosz says we could do far worse than to emulate Don Quixote and seek out the nobility in everyone around us. Maybe the Venezuelan government is on to something.
Nautilus Theater presents "Man of La Mancha" at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, through Feb. 5.
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