Where to start with Don Quixote in Oxford’s Covered Market? Perhaps as Creation does with a man urinating into a saucepan, an instant reminder that whether you’ve read Cervantes’ two-part 1000 page 17th century tome or not, is irrelevent.
Either way, this new adaption by Creation Theatre is not only enormous fun but utterly different to anything the audience had expected.
“An absolutely quintessential piece of OXFORD’s MUST-SEE theatre. Bonkers, brilliant and brave”
Staging it in Oxford’s famous landmark is also genius, the closed stalls and smell of vegetables and meat, entirely in keeping with the tale of these two down-trodden men trying to keep their spirits up by preparing for an ill-advised road trip up the A40 to Wales.
Their trusty stead is a Robin Reliant-esque vehicle towing a ramshackle caravan, and much enjoyment is taken from the ramifications of this trip.
All of which is almost by-the-by, because the star of Creation’s Don Quixote is the script. Yes the two actors are brilliantly cast, “Cowley’s version of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau,” as these bedraggled 21st century versions of the Grumpy Old men call themselves.
Eric MacLennan’s Dom is proud, witty, eccentric and beguiling, yet his age continually whips his dignity from under him, his muddled brain and descent into dementia humbling to watch, his wit, good humour and resilience battling through.
His side-kick Sam (Graeme Rose), more carer and provider than farmer, is given more kudos than perhaps Cervantes would warrant, as evidenced in the well matched duos cracking dialogue.
This is largely down to Jonathan Holloway, whom Creation often employs for its in the-round, out-of-theatre experiences (most recently Brave New World and 1984).
Thanks to him, not only is Don Quixote light-hearted, fun, poignant, prescient and quick, Cervantes pages turning like a maelstrom as the script whips along, but it is clever, tender and brilliantly written.
Director Jonathan crafts it arounds Dom’s love of James Bond: “The knight errant of the modern day,” until Sam’s thinly veiled Sancha Panza points out that Ian Fleming’s Bond is actually a 1950s ‘sexist, racist, misogynist and imperialist who would be shunned by modern day society.’
“He was the man everyone wanted to be and every woman wanted to sleep with,” Dom says in bewilderment. Not any more.
Which is essentially the point of the play – where is ’third-agers’ place in society and their warranted feeling of abandonment, displacement, discomfort? Where do they fit in? Why are they no longer valid when they have contributed so much? Why is the golden era now so wrong?
And as Don Quixote winds to its brilliant end, you realise that Cervantes tale of chasing chivalry and a bygone era is as relevant now as it was in 1605, Jonathan Holloway has just brought Don Quixote de la Mancha kicking and screaming into the 21st century, while reminding us that a bit of understanding wouldn’t go amiss.
And it works, so that both purists and novices alike will adore this production.
An absolutely quintessential piece of Oxford’s must-see theatre. Bonkers, brilliant and brave.
Don Quixote is on at Oxford’s Covered Market until September 28.
01865 or 766266 or creationtheatre.co.uk
