"Quixote Nuevo" at Cal Shakes

Cal Shakes production photo by Kevin Berne

Continuing a month of June that contained so many plays that I'm having to wait until July to write about it all, here comes Cal Shakes with the world premiere of Quixote Nuevo by Octavio Solis. Somewhere in the fine print in the program is an indication that this is related to an earlier take on Don Quixote that premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2009, which I also saw (my first ever show in Ashland!). But I don't remember it very well. I wasn't blogging about theater back then, but I did find some notes on a more general blog. Definitely a different show!

The Play

Unlike the show in Ashland a decade ago, this is not a telling of Cervantes' Don Quixote, but rather a retelling of a similar story set in modern Texas. La Plancha, Texas, to be precise. So our Quixote is an aging, Latino Texan who seems to be losing a lot of his mind. His family is trying to take care of him, despite very limited resources. And lately, as they are about to move him into a home, he's having visions brought to him by a calaca, a skeleton or spirit of the dead. He begins to see himself as the legendary knight Don Quixote, and recruits a local to be his squire, Sancho, as he searches for his lost love across the border, Dulcinea.

It's really quite a sweet story, as we watch our Quixote drift in and out of lucidity, and we sometimes see the world as he's imagining it, sometimes as those around him see it. Moving back and forth over that line is an effective tool, and Solis handles it well.

Particularly touching is the way so many people try to help our errant knight, realizing he's old and not in his right mind, and trying to thwart those who would take advantage of him.

The Production

This show continues a trend of impressive productions at Cal Shakes, though I have to say the amphitheater wasn't full, and not nearly as full as I've been used to seeing. I hope that doesn't reflect a drop in their attendance overall, because I think the quality of their shows has been trending upward the last couple of years under new Artistic Director Eric Ting.

I will admit this show set off one of my alarms, when I saw they'd imported a guest star who is best known for his TV work. Emilio Delgado plays our aging Quixote, but he's best known for a 44-year run as Luis on "Sesame Street". That's not exactly an obvious set-up to a leading stage role. But I was pleasantly surprised. Delgado handled the complex role with aplomb, managing to be charming and vulnerable and dashing and humble and all the characteristics needed for both his real self and his imagined knight.

I thought the acting was quite good throughout, with Juan Amador particularly effective as the supportive Sancho and Hugo Carbajal playing the difficult role of Papa Calacas, leading our Quixote ever farther astray. Sol Castillo as a very worldly Padre Perez, Amy Lizardo as Juana, and Gianna DiGregorio Rivera as Antonia also stood out for me.

The set design by Annie Smart was fine, though nothing particularly spectacular, but I thought the props and costumes (by Ulises Alcala) were particularly effective and often comical.

All in all, I thought it was a touching and smooth production, which suits both the Quixote story and the path of our aging protagonist. Director KJ Sanchez kept things moving and coherent, which is often a challenge with new works.

Bottom Line

Another solid and enjoyable production by Cal Shakes. I appreciate their efforts to tell stories beyond their core set of Shakespeare and American classics, reaching out for good stories from different cultures. I truly hope that was not responsible for the number of empty seats around the theater, because this was a good show that deserves to be seen.

Solis has managed to take the familiar tropes of the Don Quixote story and turn it into something nuevo, touching the modern issues of aging and the contemporary issues of the U.S.-Mexican border with the humor and charm of Cervantes' characters. For me, this was a much more approachable version of Don Quixote than the distantly-remembered version I saw at Ashland almost a decade ago.

Unfortunately, this seemed to be a really short run, and we saw it in its last week, so it's now gone. But you should keep an eye open for this show and for the work of Octavio Solis. Seeing what he's done with the Quixote story over time suggests to me that he's an impressive and talented writer, and I'd like to see more of his work.