In a crazy world, who is the sane human? Is he the one who tilts at windmills, creates his own heroes and dreams of impossibilities because only in fantasy is there the hope of a different world?
This was the philosophy behind "Man of La Mancha," which might today be nothing more than a dusty old musical if not for the elusive nature of its truth and purpose.
Theater Latté Da has opened its 20th season with a nicely realized staging of "La Mancha," a work drawing inspiration from writer Miguel de Cervantes and his dazzling protagonist, Don Quixote.
Director Peter Rothstein places the work in the cinder-block holding area of a modern detention center (set by Michael Hoover). It's a well-intentioned stab at relevancy that makes its case convincingly up to the point where the dialogue references the historic Spanish Inquisition.
We get the point. Resisting absurdity in a world of claustrophobic ideology is timeless.
Cervantes (Martín Solá) puts on a play within a play, telling the story of Don Quixote in hopes that the prisoners will find him innocent in their kangaroo court.
It is a stunning moment when that drama begins in Rothstein's production. Designer Marcus Dilliard's lights shift from cold klieg to dramatic red. Handmade props (Abbee Warmboe) and masks (Abbey Syme) are distributed to the prisoners, who become actors in telling the story of the "knight errant."
Solá has the requisite charisma, voice and stamina to make Cervantes/Quixote a man who convinces his fellow prisoners that he deserves better than his fate. He might not be the craziest or most mesmerizing Quixote I've seen. He is flush with nobility and honor, though.
