It is the saddest book in the history of literature. Its last pages are filled with the loneliness and the sadness of this world.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky,
    Russian writer

    horse_gallop

Well. I have no idea where he went, what he did there, no idea. He was just wandering, without purpose. The man was deranged. He had illusions. The village was laughing at him. I guess you understand...

— Pedro Perlerina,
    Mayor of La Mancha

    loop_dealer

The sad story of the death of Don Quixote and of those who still believe in the beauty of knighthood.

The performance is a docufiction describing incidents from the life of the Knight of Mancha. Incidents that are described in the book, incidents inspired by it or completely re-invented.

    birds

Characters from the book and historical persons give their own opinion on the hero, expressing their support or their doubts about the way he lived.

He reminds us, though, that we are constantly at war. That everything is war.

— Gudrun Ennslin,
    Member of the RAF

    weather

Before he died, he called me to his bed and told me, 'I loved you so much, my friend Sancho. But now I'm tired. We’ve had a lot of adventures, Sancho. And I’ve won. But even so I feel sad. Life is a path of sadness.' And then he died. It was the 4th of May.

— Sancho Panza,
    Don Quixote's squire

Don Quixote is walking on a tread-mill, walking but not really moving, while he is being surrounded by strange birds and persons with masks, young men and women running in a deserted landscape, in a weird Punishment Park, in a violent and irrational universe, where chaos reigns and all hope is gone. It is not clear if this strange world really exists or if it is the product of the hero’s deranged mind. It is not clear if this world is the universe of the book or the real world we live in.

    howling_wolf

We waited for him all night. Nothing. He was gone. My uncle was gone. I could never expect a thing like that. I hadn't thought how it would be when someone leaves.

— Antonia Quijano,
    Don Quixote's niece

    crickets

For me, he is a Knight of Faith in a faithless world. That's why he is left alone.

— Andrei Tarkovsky,
    Russian cinematographer

We all have dreamt of being a hero, at some point of our lives. Fixing the wrongs. Saving world from injustice. Of course we haven't become heroes at the end. Most of us. However, that proves nothing. Truth does exist even if everything is a delusion. Faith does exist even if nobody is keeping it.

— Groucho Marx,
    American comedian

Sovereign and exalted Lady,

The pierced by the point of absence, the wounded to the heart's core, sends thee, sweetest Dulcinea del Toboso, the health that he himself enjoys not. If thy beauty despises me, if thy worth is not for me, if thy scorn is my affliction, though I be sufficiently long–suffering, hardly shall I endure this anxiety, which, besides being oppressive, is protracted. My good squire Sancho will relate to thee in full, fair ingrate, dear enemy, the condition to which I am reduced on thy account: if it be thy pleasure to give me relief, I am thine; if not, do as may be pleasing to thee; for by ending my life I shall satisfy thy cruelty and my desire.

Thine till death

(Don Quixote's letter to Dulcinea del Toboso)

Adaption – Direction
blitz theatre group

Lighting
Tasos Palaioroutas

Set – Costumes
Eva Manidaki ↗

Assistant Director
Angeliki Tsoupra
Vassia Attarian

Sound Design
Stefanos Konstantinidis

Performers
Aris Armaganidis
Nikos Flessas
Errikos Litsis
Michalis Mathioudakis
Aggeliki Papoulia
Christos Passalis
Fidel Talaboukas
Marissa Triantafyllidou
Giorgos Valais et al.

Festival Lessingtage
Thalia Theater
Hamburg, 2013 ✓

Festival Scènes d’Europe
La Comédie de Reims
Reims, 2012 ✓

Supported by ONDA ↗

Athens Festival
Athens, 2012 ✓

Presentation text ↗