H-e-e-e-e-re's Donny!

>> Cabaret-style Don Quichotte at TNM

by AMY BARRATT

A Post-Modern Don Quixote, The Flamenco Don Quixote, Don Quixote: The Musical. These are some alternative titles I came up with while watching Wajdi Mouawad's adaptation of Don Quixote, now playing at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde. Billing it as "Don Quichotte, de Cervantés" doesn't begin to suggest the originality, the pageantry of this brave new creation, directed by Dominic Champagne.

Any stage adaptation of Cervantes' novel (two volumes in fact) would have to be creative, as the original stretches close to 1,000 pages long. Mouawad had to be fearless in his cutting, yet avoid ending up with a live-action Cole's Notes. More than a retelling of the story, I'd call this play a riff on the theme of the lover of chivalric romances who styles himself a knight errant and sets out to "save the world." In the TNM production, the stage is mostly bare, the lighting equipment is clearly visible and live musicians play on stage throughout the performance.

The feeling you get is that the characters have found themselves in this play by accident. This is further emphasized by costumes evoking many different eras and incorporating flights of pure imagination--as if the actors had gone through the wardrobe department and put on whatever caught their fancy. The original electro-acoustic score by Pierre Benoit is both contemporary and ageless, rather like the "faux gypsies" performing it.

I dislike the popular trend of slapping soundtracks (generally pre-recorded) onto plays, in an attempt to make them more accessible to audiences accustomed to movies. The music in Don Quichotte doesn't feel that way at all. It's an integral part of the piece, a major character, in fact. And oh joy, oh bliss: it doesn't drown out the actors! Director Champagne also uses musical instruments as a major motif in his conception of the play. When Don Quichotte (Normand Chouinard) first makes the decision to go out into the world, he "knights" himself using a bow handed to him by violinist Kristin Molnar. When Quichotte and his "squire" Sancho Panéa (the lovable Rémy Girard) saddle up, instead of a horse and a donkey, they straddle a guitar and a banjo.

The character of Quixote is perhaps most remarkable because, even after almost 400 years, he remains mysterious. He possesses the idealism of the very young, yet his beard is grey; he tries to right the wrongs of the world, but doesn't notice when his interventions just make things worse. When he mistakes windmills for giants, we think he must be crazy or senile or certainly short-sighted. Yet when he fails to see anything but good in others, we find him sweet, even, perhaps, saintly.

Besides the compelling duo of Chouinard and Girard, there is a large supporting cast of caricatures. The acting style is bigger and more outrageous than anything we see in English theatre in Montreal and I did occasionally feel that the production was designed for the attention span of a hyperactive five-year-old. On the other hand, despite the non-traditional interpretation, the acting--with shrieking fishwives and lascivious butchers--is evocative of a 17th-century style.

There's a magnificent scene in the second act involving a banquet table that is a miracle of design (go see for yourself--I've no doubt its appearance will stop the show every night). Don Quichotte and Sancho are dining at the home of a certain duchesse who hosts the party, microphone in hand, like Sally Jessye on Dexatrim. While the duchesse tries her best to make Quichotte see what a fool he's been, even revealing that Sancho himself has lied to him, Quichotte remains serene, absolutely convinced of the goodness of his friend.

Is he rising above the meanness and ugliness of the world, or is he just oblivious to reality? This is the question that is never fully answered; nor do we want it to be. The play leans toward presenting Quixote as mad, only to emphasize the fine line between madness and vision. Gaunt and ragged as a Dead Sea ascetic, Chouinard brings courage and depth to the role.

Though at times it may be a little too manic--at the expense of simplicity and truth--this imaginative, colourful Don Quichotte is definitely one of the highlights of the theatre season so far.

Don Quichotte, till April 18 at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, 84 Ste-Catherine W.