George Bernard Shaw could have been thinking of Don Quixote when he said that courage will not save you, but it will show that your soul is alive. The deluded hidalgo from La Mancha is ridiculous and probably beyond saving, but he is brave.
Octavio Solis's adaptation "Don Quixote de La Mancha," directed by Laird Williamson, is just your basic little retro-Iberian, phantasmagorical, provincial, picaresque chivalry spoof, in English, with puppets. It opened Saturday night on the OSF's Elizabethan stage...
...Solis and company have herded only the first of Cervantes' two Quixote books onto the stage, the one without the darkness. It contains of necessity only parts of the whole, but they are chosen and realized here to brilliant effect, funny with hints of something profound. It is brilliant theater.
The absurd Don Quixote has a certain dignity as he passionately pursues his ideals without wavering. He must fail, since he is rebelling against time itself, but he never wavers. If he goes down in flames, there is splendor in the ashes. In the end the Avatar promises Don Quixote he will believe in Dulcinea. We don't know if he's telling the truth.
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