Cervantes' Knight of the Woeful
Countenance comes to Port
Theatre Three Presents Man of
First published in the Times
Beacon Record Newspapers.
“This might be the best play we’ve ever done,” said Theatre Three’s Chairman of the Board, Andrew Markowitz, to Artistic Director Jeffrey Sanzel during intermission on Man of La Mancha’s opening night. Markowitz had left his seat and headed directly down the main steps for the spot in the foyer between the door into the ticket booth/office and the doors into the theater where Sanzel holds court during intermission, greeting friends and fans, putting out fires, accepting compliments, and preparing for the second act. Sanzel accepted the complement on behalf of his “great cast and crew” and admitted that he was really pleased with the production himself.
And he had a right to be.
The set, which the audience has time to examine in advance of the performance, is a marvel of economy and mood. We are in the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition in the middle of the 14th century. The mood is dismal and filthy as the inmates begin to wake. Then come the guards – and the lowering of set designer Randall Parsons and Technical Director Neil Creedon’s piece de resistance, the stairs from the second story. They bisect the stage, ceasing all action and focusing all attention. Down them is forced Miguel de Cervantes, poet, playwright, and enemy of the Inquisition (believing that he was to treat all equally he, in his role as tax collector, foreclosed on a church), and his manservant.
Once the guards leave, the inmates turn on the newcomers, intent on stealing whatever they have and it is in his attempt to save his precious manuscripts from the fire that he offers to tell his story, in the form of a play. Soon he has everyone taking a part in the story of Alonso Quijana who determines, 300 years after the last knight has been laid to rest, to become a knight errant and go on a quest. As Don Quixote, the Knight of the Woeful Countenance, he is attended by his faithful manservant, Sancho Panza, brought to life engagingly by Dennis Setteducati whose fearful yet loyal companionship permits Quixote to reach for the stars.
Theatre Three’s production misses none of the play’s passion, sly satire, or emotional power, yet never trips over into maudlin. Steve McCoy is a magnificent Quixote, he pleads guilty to the makeshift prosecutor’s accusation that he is “an idealist, a bad poet, and an honest man,” and charms his way into the hearts of his fellow captives. The prison prosecutor, played with just enough angry-young-man arrogance by Steve Ayle, serves several roles in the play within a play, each of them with prefect pitch.
And perfect pitch is important in this play; it is a musical after all. McCoy’s voice is many shades of wonderful. His rendition of title song (often called “I, Don Quixote”) is glorious, his “Golden Helmet of Mambrino” hilarious, the incomparable love song “Dulcinea” faultless, and the show’s signature song “The Quest (To Dream the Impossible Dream)” is delivered with power and emotion.
To mention the love song without including the love object is impossible. Julie Stiso has been performing out of town for a while and we are thrilled to have her back. Aldonza’s glorious anger at Quixote’s tenderness (which she mistrusts), and his refusal to see her as she sees herself or to call her by her given name, is perfectly tuned, as is her marvelous voice. This is a very physically demanding role, not only does she spit fire and fume beautifully, she is also the victim of a brutal gang rape at the hands of the muleteers who think the Knight is benighted and “the whore” is acting above her station. There was nothing salacious or titillating about it; choreographer Jean Sorbera designed it so exquisitely that I found myself flinching and turning away. All the muleteers, the bad-boys in the story, were well cast and well coordinated, with special kudos going to Pedro, their leader (Nick Attanasio). Together they evinced a kind of raw maleness that implied anger, fear, tension, rage, and occasional brief flashes of innocence.
No
gentleman can go out and make himself a knight. He must be dubbed such by the
king of a castle or some other high-born statesman. In Quixote’s mind the
In the back story of this play within a play is the gentleman’s family back home who are worried that he has lost his mind and they will lose their inheritance and their place in society. Fresh from a fabulous performance as Marty in “Grease,” Chakira Iliana makes a wonderful well-born young lady, worried only that her stickler for convention fiancé (Ayle) will drop her as a result of her uncle’s misguided adventures. Her part in the trio performance “I’m Only Thinking of Him” is delightful, as is Debbie Starker’s as the spinster housekeeper and Patrick O’Connor’s as the family priest (and perhaps the only one actually thinking of “him”).
All the other roles are filled with talented and spirited actors including Douglas Quattrock as the befuddled barber, Lori Anne de Iulio Casdia as the Innkeepers shrewish wife, John Ramo as the evil Captain of the Inquisition, and Sari Feldman as a serving girl, a Moorish Dancer, and the troupe’s capable Dance Captain. Ellen Michelmore and her talented pit orchestra are to be commended for an excellent rendition of a complex and powerful score. Go see it, but bring some tissues, men and women alike are brought to tears at several places in this emotionally powerful and timeless drama about being true to ones dreams, whatever the cost.
Man of