Review: Don Quixote - Man of Clackmannanshire
‘Donald’ from Clackmannanshire does not go gentle into the night…he rages as he watches the dying light of his telly having just gored it quite literally with a spear. Who amongst us has not felt the same urge? Have you seen whats on your shiny two-grand 7680×4320 pixelated box?
When daily life gets you down: daydream. That’s the message of this modern-day take on Cervantes’ classic novel. Let your inner life take control. And so ‘Donald’ dons his rusty chain-mail, a helmet, and mounts an easy chair to loudly declare his quest for god and valour. All before breakfast. It’s a disturbing sight for the home-help who is due at Barbara’s in ten minutes. ‘Donald’ has no time for such frivolities. He mounts his trusty steed - a mobility scooter - and embarks upon a journey (“there’ll be no tears!”).
For those around him, ‘Donald’ is a time-consuming man in a world where there is no time. His niece wants him to sit in his chair, drink tea and watch Bargain Hunt. His home-help wants him to eat his Shreddies or Weetabix. The only person who seemingly has any time for his rantings is young ‘Sandy’ - his great nephew; taking on the ‘Sancho Panza’ role. The generational gap helps soften ‘Donald’s’ irascibility…the promise of his 4-bedroom house also helps to persuade ‘Sandy’ to accompany this self-proclaimed knight as his squire. On their travels, ‘Donald’ is knighted by the ‘Queen of Poundland’, meets a conspiracy theorist at the Chevalier Inn (a Wetherspoons) who warns of the evils of wind turbines, and sets up camp on an island with a recognisable standing stone bearing an arrow (a roundabout to you and me).
It is left to the audience to decide whether all this capering is a concern or not: often straddling the same path travelled by the characters of Still Game with the question of dementia never far away. It offers a stoic vision of fun to be had in one’s twilight years. Is ‘Donald’ living in our world or are we living in his? Does it matter if we join him on his journey? Surely all we have to lose is time... long since sliced, diced and commodified into a standardised, marketable product by our capitalist society. Perhaps the reason why the oldest and youngest generations get on so well is that they have time. The young have not yet learned to prioritise it.
Benny Young is pitch-perfect in the role of ‘Donald’ - capturing the sweet spot that is the union of irascibility and bemusement, whilst remaining wanly exotic. Young’s chemistry with Sean Connor’s wide-eyed ‘Sandy’ establishes the pan-generational relationship that facilitates humour and inquisitiveness: where knight and squire learn from one another. The presence of live flamenco musicians beautifully informs scene-setting to provide the requisite levels of otherworldliness. Underpinned with broad-brushes of Scottish humour, Don Quixote - Man of Clackmannanshire is imbued with a philosophy asking why we prioritise aspects of our life in the way we do.
Director Lu Kemp’s production of Ben Lewis’ adaptation aims for a tension to free ourselves whilst providing safety for those who we care for, and just about achieves it through a fine-line narrative straddling prejudice, narcissism and rage.
A particular highlight, providing serendipitous humour (presumably unintentional), occurs when ‘Donald’ is asked a series of questions by a welfare assessor to test his mental awareness: what’s today’s date? what’s your address? what year is it? He is then asked the one question, regardless of age or mental acuity, we would all struggle with: “who’s the prime minister?”. After a long pause, Donald replies “Liz Truss”. This remains a beautiful example of the magic of theatre: no other medium can adapt so nimbly to context whilst simultaneously bathing us in the warm glow of cathartic bonhomie.
Don Quixote - Man of Clackmannanshire was performed 24th Sept - 15th Oct at the Dundee Rep.