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The New Adventures Of Don QuixoteStock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionMULE. Who created us? ROCINANTE. What kind of dumb question is that? The great master Cervantes, of course. Who else? MULE. God. ROCINANTE. Listen you obstinate fool. We're animals. We don't have to believe in God. That's meant for the superior species. MULE. Why did Cervantes create us? ROCINANTE. Because he was a genius. I think he made me a bit like himself. But those who ride us were not so lucky. Tariq Ali's latest play, The New Adventures of Don Quixote, can be read as homage to German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht as much as a playful tribute to Cervantes's masterwork. The central characters from the original novel, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, are mounted on their beasts of burden, Rocinante and the Mule, and Ali has them ride into the twenty-first century, where they are confronted by old vices familiar to them: war, greed, ethnic and religious prejudices, disappointed love, and economic crisis. Their story is satirical, and their songs are sad and angry. But there are odd moments of happiness for Quixote, when he imagines that a wounded US colonel is Dulcinea and allows himself to be seduced by her in a military hospital in Germany. Author descriptionTariq Ali is a writer and filmmaker. He has written more than a dozen books, including Fear of Mirrors, also published by Seagull Books. |