From the Desk of Jim R, Take 2, Column 202, A Review: "Quixote Nuevo" (Hartford Stage)

By James V. Ruocco

"I had to take Don Quixote to a different place that was closer to home, closer to me and closer to where I come from. So I set it along the border, where a lot of my plays are set."

Octavio Solis, Playwright, "Quixote Nuevo"

An absurdist fantasy with topical jolts of truth and realism, "Quixote Nuevo" rethinks the Don Quixote saga and its colorful characters and mixes it inventively with today's issues of racism, cultural identity, prejudice, mental health, immigration and survival set against the backdrop of a small West Texas town with a hard-working, depressed, low-income populace.

Epic.
Wild.
Outrageous.
Blunt.
Immersive.
Upbeat.

It is the ideal play to jump start the 2019-2020 season at Hartford Stage and celebrate the beginning of  the theater's brand new Artistic Director, Melia Bensussen who took up residence at the theater earlier this year. It is also one of those shows to add immediately to your must-see list of fall theater going.

Playwright Octavio Solis' raucous and cheeky rejuvenation of the iconic 17th century Cervantes tale is timely, meticulous and thoughtful. It soars. It surprises. It cajoles. It tingles. It excites. It explodes. It catches you off guard. It breaks your heart in two. It also mixes the tensions of idealism and madness most imaginatively.
His use of Spanish, carefully mixed appropriately with the English dialogue of the text, is completely understandable and authenticates the cultural feel of the piece, its setting and the characters themselves. If you speak Spanish, you will understand every word. If you don't, you can still follow what exactly is going on based on the enunciation, the facial expressions, the hand gestures and the body movements of the performers.

"Quixote Nuevo" is being staged by KJ Sanchez whose credits include "Cincinnati Kid," "Jane Eyre," "The Diary of Anne Frank," "Knyum," "Sex With Strangers" and "Venus in Fur." A crafty, intuitive director whose choices and control over the material are realized with proficiency, deep concern and engagement, she is crystal clear about what she wants, how she gets it and how to thrust her audience into the play's issues first hand in the most cleverest of ways.

Here, she takes hold of Octavio Solis' play text, pulls it apart and turns it upside down, front and center and creates a polished product chock full of surprise, humor and pathos that spins engagingly from scene to scene and act to act with flourish, stamina, spirit and the kind of unexpectedness and savvy that puts her at the very top of her game. The fact that you never really know what she's going to do next heightens the play's evolution and hypnotic allure. It also produces a "Wow!" factor resulting in dropped jaws and loud clapping depending on the scene or moment itself.

Given the fact that "Quixote Nuevo" is essentially a play within a play that moves back and forth from reality to imagination, Sanchez' vibrant, nuanced take allows for plenty of creative leaps and turns that bring bite, irony, weight and dazzle to the proceedings. There's singing, dancing, Mexican-inspired music, tricycle bells, a fermented finger that gets eaten right before your very eyes, a chorus of demons and sheep that go "baa, baa, baa." And oh yes, the golden helmet of Mambrino is a  bedpan.
Crazy, tilted and in-your-face, things gallop merrily along like a drug-induced fantasy dreamed up, in part, by Federico Fellini and Pedro Almovodar. Illuminated by the director's exhilarating flashes of the fantastic, these strange, over-the-top interludes are genuinely hysterical, prompting laughs in all the right places.  They are also very, very original.

"Quixote Nuevo" stars Emilio Delgado as Jose Quijano/Don Quixote, Juan Manuel Amador as Manny Diaz/Sancho Panza, Gisela Chipe as Dr. Campos/Dulcinea, Krystal Hernandez as Rosario Castillo/Juana, Ivan Jasso as Bruno Castillo/Young Quijano,  Orlando Arriaga as Padre Perez/Cardenio, Hugo E. Carbajal as Papa Calaca, Mariela Lopez-Ponce as Magdalena/Perla and Gianna DiGregorio Rivera as Antonia/Inez. All nine performers, many of whom play various roles throughout the play are appropriately cast and pull their weight dramatically and comically with tremendous vigor, stamina, drive, resonance and confidence. Some parts, of course, are showier than the rest, but everyone, unites engagingly to bring theatrical life to this impressive, committed story.

Delgado gives a strong, endearing performance in the dual roles of Quijano and Quixote, carefully projecting the mindset of a man drifting between reality and imagination, grandeur and delusion, chivalry and pathos. His love of the material shines through as does his commanding persona and stellar acting range. Amador is appropriately funny as Diaz and Panza and gets laughs in all the right places. Like his co-star, he too has presence, charisma and a wonderful sense of comic/dramatic timing.

"Quixote Nuevo" is an inspiring, passionate theatrical piece that mixes tales from the modern world with that of the Don Quixote story. It is staged with rigorous precision by director KJ Sanchez and performed with a sense of purpose by incredible cast, headed by Delgado and Amador. It is also one of the most daring, crazy and quirky plays tellingly transposed from script to stage under the diverse and colorful banner that is Hartford Stage.

"Quixote Nuevo" is being staged at Hartford Stage (50 Church St., Hartford, CT), now through October 13.

For tickets or more information, call (860) 527-5151.

website: hartfordstage,org.