The Stage

Don Quixote

Published Monday 12 December 2011 at 11:45 by Liz Arratoon

After nine episodes of Dick Barton Boy’s Own adventures at Christmas - punctuated by Cabaret Galactica, Femme Fatale and Woody Allen’s Murder Mysteries - Warehouse director Ted Craig has cast his eye back to the sunny plains of La Mancha.

A scene from Don Quixote at the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon Photo: Graham Constable

Vince Foxhall’s adaptation of Cervantes’ epic was first seen here in 1992. His version of the comedy - I use the word lightly - has certain key incidents included, omitted or changed. The tilting at windmills is effectively done with silhouettes. There is swordplay, as you would expect, but also wordplay - puns, rhymes, innuendo, double entendres and Spanglish, some of which is clever-clever, some just plain annoying, plus original songs.

A fine cast of actors/musicians, led by Philip Benjamin as the befuddled Don Quixote and Mark Sangster as a Scottish Sancho Panza, could do no more in bringing the story alive on Kim Alwyn’s impressive set. Morgan Philpott particularly stands out as he gives his multiple roles - priest, marquis, goatherd - the greatest contrast.

But Quixote’s confusion has seeped into the script. Sometimes it’s farce, sometimes musical theatre and sometimes just a mishmash. Barton had become an ailing horse in danger of being flogged to death, but for an expectant Warehouse audience, this doesn’t pack the same punch.