Hip Pocket not tilting at windmills with its beautiful ‘Don Quixote’

Miguel de Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote, one of the most celebrated works of literature, has fascinated artists for centuries, inspiring ballets, music compositions, a musical and other stage adaptations.

Given that 2016 is the 400th anniversary of Cervantes’ death, the story has been in the zeitgeist again. Locally, Amphibian Stage Productions premiered a new Brenda Withers play in 2015 based on the novel and in 2017, Shakespeare Dallas will premiere a new adaptation by Octavio Solis.

Now, it’s Lake Simons’ turn. The daughter of Hip Pocket Theatre co-founders Johnny and Diane Simons chose the work for her and longtime collaborator John Dyer’s annual visit to Fort Worth. If you’ve seen Lake’s adaptations of other great works of literature, such as Moby-Dick, The Tempest and The Little Prince, you know that her physical theater approach is not to re-create plot, but rather something that evokes character, action and theme.

Same idea here, except that they have even more room to play with when entering the mind of a hero with an imagination so wild that his name has become a metaphor, and an adjective, to describe the foolish pursuit of ideals.

At Hip Pocket, Jeff Stanfield plays Don Quixote. His horse, a broomstick; his store, a small mop. Rick Gutierrez is sidekick Sancho Panza. The ensemble includes Frieda Austin, Brian Cook, Christina Cranshaw, Allen Dean, Jennie Lynn Godfrey, Rebo Hill, Jeremy Jackson, Courtney Mentzel and James Warila.

Some of the iconic moments of the book are here, such as the windmills turning into monsters, captivatingly staged with two ensemble members as each windmill using their four arms for the sails. Aldonza is there, too, but not as big a part of the story.

Simons is more interested in fantastical dreamlike interpretations, with images of carrots and flying birds (a quote from the book: “…and for my part, so long as I’m full, it’s all alike to me whether it’s with carrots or with partridges); the moon, stars with bells hanging from them, tumbling boulders and other knights.”

These are all puppeteered by the ensemble mostly as simplistic paper puppets. The knights are created from butcher paper, and when they are killed, the ensemble rips them into pieces.

Johna Sewell beautifully uses vibrant cardboard creations for Don Q’s helmet and breastplate, while the ensemble has tops with strips of fabric sewn onto them, evoking what a ragtag troupe of actors telling this story would create.

Music is important in a mostly wordless work, and the original score — often stunningly gorgeous — is played live by Dyer, surrounded by keyboard, an electric guitar, xylophones and various objects for percussive and wind sounds.

Books, fittingly, make an appearance, and because no simple action in Lake Simons’ world takes the most direct route, they are carefully tossed down a line of actors as if they are passing sandbags to prevent flooding. It’s a visual depiction of the chapter in the novel in which Don Quixote’s books are destroyed.

And a fitting image for a story fueled by the imagination brought about from books and disappearing into other worlds.

This story was originally published August 19, 2016 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Hip Pocket not tilting at windmills with its beautiful ‘Don Quixote’."