Wonderful and wondrous oddball odyssey
Life is a dream in ‘Quixote Nuevo’ at Hartford Stage
“Quixote Nuevo” at Hartford Stage lives the dream. It’s sharp, fast, funny, human and haunting.
Octavio Solis’ magical modernization of Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” has heart and political fervor and worthwhile messages about perseverance, tolerance and community.
“Quixote Nuevo” happens to mark a new phase at Hartford Stage. It’s the first show at the theater since Melia Bensussen took over as artistic director this past summer.
If this is a new vibe, let it continue to throb. Sanchez uses the theater’s full thrust stage to make sure “Quixote Nuevo” is fully in your face.
In terms of thrills, spills, multidimensional majesty and a classic literary lineage, “Quixote Nuevo” has an awful lot in common with Hartford Stage’s long-running seasonal standard “A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas.”
It has the same level of dazzling special effects (except no flying) and grand-scaled set pieces. It has a similar swiftmoving ensemble cast. It has heartwarming flashback scenes about lost loves and roads not taken. It’s got the same wacky go-for-it late-life turn-around for its hero.
But “Quixote Nuevo” also lives in the here and now. It’s not sentimental and Victorian. It’s down and dirty. It’s also weighty and philosophical. You can find hysterical highs and unexpected depths in just about every scene of this oddball odyssey.
Hey, any chance of making “Quixote Nuevo” an annual event?
Well, we can dream, can’t we? Dreaming is what “Quixote Nuevo” does particularly well. Its hero is a retired academic with Alzheimer’s named José Quijano — “an out-of-print scholar” and “an old professor in his last edition,” as Solis’ poetic script describes him — in need of constant care from family members.
His lifelong love of Cervantes’