Don Quixote Revisited

The action unfolds in an imaginary refugee camp. Inhabited by people of different origins. With African and Eastern European accents. The desire grows to perform a play to pass the time. The refugees discuss the possibilities. The classic «Dom Quixote» wins through – the role going to actor Afonso Dias. His faithful valet Sancho Panza is interpreted by Mário Spencer. And from then on begin the various metaphorical readings, as well as the implicit politics of the play.

The first obstacle is the difficulty of bringing a play to life in a camp full of rules and regulations. Off-stage, this problem reflects, for example, the new terms of support for the arts by the Direcção-Geral das Artes (DGA), the body overseen by the Ministry of Culture, which brings huge cuts for the Algarve next year.

But let’s return to the stage again. Action takes place always in two different voices that blend together. In other words, the play’s text mixes parts of original Cervantes with texts by writer Luís Mourão. As a result, at some point, Dom Quixote starts to mix his own reality as a refugee with the illusions of the classic novel of the knight.

This is the way ACTA have constructed their new play where minimalist scenery affords players many possibilities for artistic projection. And what follows, falls between comedy, pantomime and the musical – there’s even a dramatic sequence where puppets are used.

Music is, in fact, a constant in the production: African songs interpreted by Mário Spencer, melodies from Eastern Europe sung by Vasile Bodrug and the spectacular voice of soprano Liza Veiga. The cast are perfectly used to this, as they’ve all been involved in previous musical co-productions with the Orquestra do Algarve. For Luís Vicente, ACTA’s director, this new play is something of an old friend.

“Initially, the idea for it was mine. Then I thought the best person, the most capable to interpret the concept, would be Andrzej Kowalski”, the Polish director who had already collaborated on other projects with the Algarve theatre group. “There was a book which helped us give the play its direction. It was «The Idea of Europe» by George Steiner. It gave as a good background,” he explains. Thus, the refugee camp is, in the end, a metaphor for Europe where institutions oversee people’s problems (badly) and where, despite the idea of multiculturalism, prejudice still exists alongside conformism, doubt and concern.

Without wanting to bring politics too much to the fore, Kowalski doesn’t hide the fact that he’s brought many of his own personal experiences into the play in which key parts of the action are almost always conditioned by administrators, guards or bureaucrats. “Yes, of course. In the end this Dom Quixote is a bit the result of my life – in which you’ll find a bureaucrat at every corner,” he reflects.

“Europe, for me, is no more or less than any other place. We are all refugees from something. We’re all trying to run away from something. This camp is simply symbolic of that sort of behaviour. The walls represent the invisible barriers we create among ourselves,” Kowalski continues. And Dom Quixote is consequently a combination of madness showing the system for all its faults.

Kowalski’s last words (he’s now in Guinea working on another project) were to praise the cast. “I’ve just come from the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II and I have no doubt that there it would not be possible to stage this play… The team at ACTA share a great rapport. The actors are very creative, open people. The ‘house silver’ at ACTA is made of gold!” he concludes. Why not go and see for yourselves?