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The latest offering at the Nomad Theatre was 'Man of La Mancha', a musical celebrating the tale of Don Quixote. 'Man of La Mancha' is not the easiest of constructs: it features a play within a play, with a third layer thrown in for good measure. The play's central character, Miguel de Cervantes, and an associate are brought to prison to await a hearing with the Inquisition. He is set upon by the prisoners, who decide to hold a mock trial in order to find him guilty and steal all his possessions (including a package he seems to value greatly). Cervantes presents a play as his defense, to give the "jury" insight into the "crimes" of which they accuse him. They agree and become actors in his play. Cervantes plays Alhonso Quijana, a man who has set his own reality aside and becomes Don Quixote de La Mancha. 'Man of La Mancha' simultaneously tracks the experiences of the three men (Cervantes, Quijana, and Quixote), focusing mostly upon Quixote.
One of the key problems with this musical, and what makes it such a bold choice for any company to stage, is the complexity of the storyline, and the mixture of styles it seems to incorporate. On the one hand it's a tale of adventure, then it flits to romance, then to almost Pythonesque comedy, brushing past moments of melodrama and back again. Therefore one of the director's (Stephen Whittock's) first objectives must be to make the production accessible to his audience. The Nomads' production was atmospheric and entertaining, and the actors coped admirably in bringing this tricky tale to life. The opening sequence was truly memorable, the dark cavern-like walls of the prison, the descending staircase from the light of the world above, the squalor of the prison in-mates, the revolve revealing 'Man of La Mancha', all lit with incredible effect, and accompanied by the band's first rendition of the title track. I was truly excited and ready to be startled by this production. Unfortunately, the rest of the show didn't quite deliver to the same standard. The singing overall was fairly mediocre, with one or two exceptions, and I felt that more could have been achieved vocally by this cast, the majority of whom were experienced in musical theatre. There was however a good pace to the show, characters on the whole were believable, and the production itself was fairly slick, despite some obvious problems with the sound mics.
It falls upon the actor playing Quixote to provide the audience link to the story, and Colin Wolrich must be applauded for his portrayal of the title role. This was a natural performance; he gave a very measured and intelligent delivery of his lines, and had a pleasant singing voice to boot. My one criticism of this performance was his rendition of The Impossible Dream', without doubt the show's well known number, which in my opinion was too static and lacked the passion and energy that this song requires.
His companion and comedy sidekick, Sancho Panza, was played with comic effect by Stephen Macvicar whose rendition of 'I like Him' was one of the highlights of the show, and showed off an excellent tenor voice. Aldonza is an incredibly challenging rote for any singer/actress, but Lauren Fantham- coped very well with some very-difficult -songs. Her breakdown at the end of the show at Quixote's bedside was very moving, and led beautifully into the final chorus of 'Impossible Dream'. Don Brown was suitably authoritative as the Duke, and notable in the supporting line-up was Julian Rye's performance as 'the Governor'.
As I mentioned earlier, Stephen Whittock's production was assisted in no small way by a fantastic set (designed by Rupert Ellick) and a very atmospheric lighting design (David Armitage). The band, hidden upstage, was directed by Lindsay Macaulay. Finally I was left unsatisfied at the end by the lack of a curtain call, which I felt to be a strange omission. Surely it is the audience's right to have the theatrical spell broken at the end of the evening? Nevertheless well done to all. |
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