[On Stage] Don Quixote as a Madman? The Craziest Act Is Giving Up on Your Dreams

Musical 'Man of La Mancha'

Cheerfully depicts the challenge against ideals
Jo Seung-woo captivates as Cervantes and Alonso
Jung Won-young's Sancho evokes various emotions
Hopeful reinterpretation through Don Quixote's ending

Actor Jo Seung-woo, who played the roles of Alonso and Cervantes in the musical 'Man of La Mancha'.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Recently, an acquaintance who worked at a major domestic corporation resigned and switched careers to become a beatmaker, pursuing his long-held dream of becoming a composer. In a world where people can’t even find jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and some even risk their lives, quitting a stable job... without even being born with a silver spoon...

These cynical thoughts resurfaced recently, making me feel ashamed of myself. It was after watching the musical Man of La Mancha, based on the novel Don Quixote by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes (1547?1616). The elderly Alonso, who calls himself Don Quixote and cheerfully challenges the ideals he holds in his heart, reminded me of my friend who set out on the path of music. When Cervantes, playing Alonso in the play, shouted, "The maddest thing is to settle for reality and give up on dreams," I somehow felt a pang of guilt.

Cervantes, who was imprisoned for blasphemy after taxing the church, is portrayed in Man of La Mancha performing a play-within-a-play with fellow prisoners before the Inquisition. Actor Seungwoo Jo (41) plays Cervantes, who suddenly transforms into Alonso, moving back and forth between roles, which is even more fascinating.

By Alonso’s side is always Sancho, who follows him. Even when Alonso mistakes windmills for giants or regards an innkeeper as a lord, Sancho does not stop him. Instead, he even encourages him. When I first encountered Don Quixote in the novel, I thought Sancho was just a passive sidekick due to the medieval setting of a servant.

However, watching actor Wonyoung Jung’s (36) portrayal of Sancho conveys different emotions. Perhaps Sancho wanted to escape the tedious reality through Alonso. Just as people today become overly immersed in online game characters, Sancho might have been a kind of gamer playing the character ‘Don Quixote’ at that time.

Actor Jung Won-young, who played the role of Sancho in the musical 'Man of La Mancha'.

When Seungwoo Jo plays Cervantes, the setting is a Spanish underground prison. The people here have no names; they are simply called ‘prisoners.’ They are a group defined by ‘sameness,’ discriminated against and excluded. Cervantes gives the prisoners names and roles, dismantling their sameness and restoring them as individual, autonomous humans.

Alonso goes further by calling Aldonza (Sujin Choi), the inn’s maid, the noble lady Dulcinea. He imbues her with his own value. This is a deconstructivist and postmodern allegory. While the novel critiques medieval idealism, the musical seems to expose modernity from a contemporary perspective and attempts to restore idealism.

The attempt to isolate Alonso as an abnormal madman is a metaphor for the violence of modernity carried out in the name of reason, rationality, and universality. As French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926?1984) pointed out in his book History of Madness, until the Middle Ages, human history included both reason and madness. But during the Renaissance, ‘madmen’ were expelled or confined. In modern times, madness was classified as a disease, leading to the creation of psychiatric hospitals. In the play, Alonso’s niece Antonia and her fianc?, the doctor Carrasco, conspire to restore Alonso to ‘normalcy’ in the same context.

Carrasco transforms into the Knight of the Mirrors. Alonso confronts reality and suffers defeat through this Knight of the Mirrors. Then, suffering from amnesia, he returns to his hometown and falls ill. The novel ends with Don Quixote’s death. However, the musical offers a hopeful reinterpretation.

Revived by Cervantes’ impromptu acting, Alonso remembers himself as Don Quixote through Aldonza’s heartfelt plea. He vows to fight against the world that is still going wrong. His will is carried on by Cervantes as he heads to the courtroom. Finally, a ray of light shines into the dark prison. "This is the path I take / Even if there is no hope and it is far away / I will not stop or look back / I will only follow the path given to me." (From the number ‘The Impossible Dream’)

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.