Two Planks and a Passion Theatre’s playful, poignant take on Don Quixote is full of Spanish music, comic misadventure and awesome puppetry.
Nobody will leave the lush green outdoor stage at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, near Canning, without loving the puppet incarnations of a donkey, a horse and a scene-stealing lion. The errant knight’s beloved steed, Rocinate, is a giant constructed horse’s head but so beautifully manipulated by Hilary Adams and patted by the cast that the creature becomes totally real.
Two Planks artistic director Ken Schwartz has adapted Cervantes’ famous 1605 novel into Quixote!, a 90-minute romp that begins as light physical and verbal comedy then becomes more profound and poetic with a sweet, evocative ending that is artistically perfect.
Cervantes employed some meta-fiction as a writer and so does Schwartz. His story is narrated by a travelling troupe of players in colourful, medieval-style costumes of mismatched buttons, stripes, intriguing footwear and engaging colours of rich reds and blues; buttercup yellows and sage greens. The players address the audience directly and step in and and out of the people Quixote and Panza run into on their journey.
Quixote!, like the novel, is about a middle-aged man so enamoured of chivalric romances that he sets out to become a knight and persuades his neighbour, a poor farmer, to become his squire. Quixote’s fabulous imagination (or madness) leads him to see – perhaps most famously – windmills as giants to slay; hence, the famous phrase “tilting at windmills.”
Seeking to live a romantic life of fighting injustice, he perceives hovels as castles and a peasant woman as the beautiful Queen Dulcinea, depicted by Becca Guilderson in a way that makes you want to see Dulcinea reappear.
Burgandy Code is female and not tall or gaunt as in most depictions of Quixote; however, she brings all her skill and heart to create a rich, believable and lovable character. She will convince you that this knight’s delusions and passion to live life his way is the right thing to do.
Similarly, Santiago Guzman is not the short, plump figure of typical Quixote imagery; yet, he creates a powerful, lively, equally passionate character who questions Quixote but is always loyal despite the pain and hunger the duo experience.
This show pulls at the heart strings when the story becomes more about friendship as Sancho indulges Quixote and tries to bolster his fantastical view of the world. It’s a lovely twist.
In an email Schwartz said he was drawn to the novel by “the idea that two people can see the world differently but still deeply respect each other. It’s an idea that is so important right now.”
He chose stories from the novel that fit his concept and added his own storytelling including a magical and key scene featuring the knight and squire looking for animals in the clouds.
This charming, affectionate play is laced with comedy both verbal, with lots of wacky references to cheese curds, and highly physical as Don Quixote continually crashes from his horse.
There is a lot of amazement for the audience in the “how” of this world-building – the totally convincing way Code and Guzman “ride” the horse and donkey, the enchanting miniature puppet replicas of the adventurers, the very funny “dangerous” lion, a magnificent puppet more like a Lion King creature than a wild roaring beast.
Diego Cavedon Dias outdoes himself as costume and puppet designer. He and puppetry director Bonnie Thomson collaborated on building the puppets with Thomson showing the actors how to animate them.
While Quixote and Panza are the main characters, this is an ensemble show with an excellent cast playing and devising the music with musical consultant Allen Cole, stepping in and out of different, quickly-realized characters and working the puppets. Cast members include Henricus Gielis, Becca Guilderson, Omar Alex Khan, Chris O’Neill and Hugh Ritchie.
Ken Schwartz directs for a dynamic, seamless production with a creative team including stage manager Robin Munro, technical director John Thomson, head of wardrobe Simon Flint and stitcher Jessica Risser-Milne.
Quixote! is family-oriented like The Wind in the Willows in 2023 and full of the magic of creating exotic illusions out of everyday materials. Who can forget the kitchen utensils as instruments in Nothing Less by Schwartz and Ami McKay? Here the kitchen utensils and pots lids become Don Quixote’s armour, a broken scullery pot his helmet. And yet you believe Don Quixote is wearing the shining armour he imagines.
Quixote! runs to August 16, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 4 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. The night time By Fire show this year is The Haunting of Sleepy Hollow, adapted from Washington Irving’s 1820 short story, with music and lyrics by Allen Cole, book and lyrics by Ken Schwartz, who writes in the program: “Our adaptation imagines a very different Sleepy Hollow. One where nothing is as it seems and where a single outsider, one Ichabod Crane, is lured by the bucolic beauty of the little village without realizing that he is there to serve a very different purpose from the schoolteacher position he arrives to fill.”
It runs at 85 minutes without intermission to August 16, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 9 p.m. When the fire is blazing, these shows are always a thrill.
Eastern Front Theatre, in the third year of its Summer Field Trips series, is taking people to The Haunting of Sleepy Hollow on Saturday, Aug. 9. The trip from 4 p.m., departing from Alderney Landing, to 12 a.m., includes a stop at Hennigar’s Farm Market, the Blomidon Lookoff, a picnic lunch at Ross Creek as well as an artist chat and the performance. Tickets are $125; visit http://www.easternfronttheatre.com/field-trips or call the box office at 902-466-2769.
Two Planks is also hosting Gale Force Theatre in their one-night-only presentation, Aug. 24, 6 p.m., of Icarus, Falling of Birds. This outdoor performance, adapted from the book of poetry and photography of the same name by Harry Thurston and Thaddeus Holownia, features a reading by the poet, large-scale puppetry, a string trio and a youth ensemble of performers. The book was inspired by the tragic death in September of 2013 of thousands of migratory songbirds drawn to to a hundred-foot-high flare at the Canaport Liquefied Natural Gas plant in Saint John, N.B.
Since Two Planks and a Passion’s first outdoor season at Ross Creek in 2007, the company has been nominated for 127 Merritt Awards for professional theatre in Nova Scotia, winning 35 times, including four awards for outstanding production. An exhibition in the gallery tells the story of the company’s 34 years.
For tickets to both Quixote! and The Haunting of Sleepy Hollow go to the Two Planks and a Passion Theatre website (https://artscentre.ca/two-planks/). There are options for pre-ordered picnics and talkbalks. While the drive from Halifax is under an hour and a half, there are lots of places to stay overnight in the Annapolis Valley, which is stunningly beautiful right now. (If you eat at the Noodle Guy in Port Williams I promise you will not be disappointed.)
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NS reviews 
Thank you soooo much!
There are just a couple of little credit things I wonder if you could alter online?
Photo is by Memo Calderon, Becca plays the “queen” not Hilary and Ami Mckay and Ken’s play was Nothing Less.
We are so grateful for your words and coming down!
MS. CHRIS O’NEILL (she/her)
Executive Director
Ross Creek Centre for the Arts http://www.artscentre.ca/
Box 190, 555 Ross Creek Road, Canning NS, B0P 1H0
902.582.3842
http://www.artscentre.ca
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Elissa… Quixote review made me want to decamp to Canning immediately… with dining satisfaction guaranteed, to boot. Thnx. TG
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