Yo, Don Quijote (2001)

THE PEOPLE (Note: Each character plays two or more roles. These are their permanent identities, in the prison.) MIGUEL DE In age about fifty. Tall, thin, with a short CERVANTES graying beard. Manner courtly, voice courteous and leavened with humor. Face life-worn. Eyes remarkable--a child's eyes, grave and curious, endlessly interested. ESCALANTE A splendid alley cat, survivor if not always (Aldonza) victor of many back-fence tussles. She is vital, half-savage, with an aura of natural sexuality. Black hair in tangled profusion. A ripe body threatening to burst its ragged clothes. SANCHO Short, rotund, cheery, mixing peasant naivete (Manservant) and pragmatism in odd proportions. THE DUKE A handsome young man of elegance and fearful (Dr. Carrasco) ennui. English. His mordant cynicism marks the frustrated idealist. JUDAS MACABEO An old man with little square spectacles. (Padre) Unctuous and pedantic. Kindly and faintly ironic of manner. MONIPODIO A born boss, jovial, clever, amoral. Knows every (Governor) iniquity and is practiced in all. He limps. GRACIOSA A girl of eighteen, vacuously pretty, with a (Antonia) streak of malice. Not terribly bright but sometimes cunning. THE SCORPION A surly cutthroat with a hook in place of one (Pedro) hand. Bull-like and dangerous. LOBILLO A swarthy, affable pimp. He plays guitar and (Anselmo) sings well. EL MEDICO A grinny little man; evil and sprightly. (Barber) MOTHER BANE A hoarse-voiced hag of many years and misdeeds. (Housekeeper) THE GYPSY A dark, lithe, and ragged boy of thirteen. CAPTAIN OF THE INQUISITION FOUR MASKED MEN OF THE INQUISITION (non-speaking) THE SETTING A vast stone prison vault whose furthest reaches are lost in shadow. There are skeletal platforms at various heights, used by the prisoners for sleeping, and by us for certain scenes. There are two qualities of light used: the scant cold rays which sift into the prison from a grille overhead; and the warm suffusion which lights the Don Quixote scenes. Although the walls of the prison are seemingly solid stone they will, in the playing scenes, become transparent and give way to the hot sun and landscape of La Mancha; or on occasion to night sky with stars. THE PLACE A prison in Seville in 1594. ACT I (There is music. It sweeps and rolls with the bombast and blind arrogance of Spain at the end of the sixteenth century. A confident march to nowhere. The curtain rises on a one-way traveler which moves wall-like across stage, an art-work panorama of Spain. It is a profile of the wide, empty region called La Mancha framed in the distance by the burned hard lines of the sierra. A highway winds across the plains. These are some of the things we may see: -- A country home set bleakly in the fields. -- A shepherd escorting his flock in rolling clouds of dust. -- A crossroads gibbet with a hanged man dangling from its beam. -- A march of soldiers led by men bugles and kettledrums. They haul cannon and carry guns of the period. -- A turreted castle, disintegrating, springing from crags. -- A procession of hooded monks carrying tall crosiers, escort for a prelate in a sedan chair. -- The decorated wagon of a troupe of strolling players. The actors themselves riding, or walking behind in costume. -- A cluster of windmills. -- Muleteers with long coiling whips freighting goods over the road. -- A roadside inn. And finally, -- The massive and ornate gates of Seville and, seen through and above them, the city itself. …