Taking up a lance and sword, Don Quixote sets out on a hilarious journey across medieval Spain, defending the helpless and vanquishing the wicked. Hopelessly unprepared and increasingly losing his grip on reality, with each calamitous adventure the two hapless heroes experience, the romantic ideal of Quixote’s books seems further away than ever, ‘riotously performed by David Threlfall as Don Quixote and Rufus Hound as Sancho Panza’ (The Times).
Following its sell-out run at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in 2016 to mark the 400th anniversary of Cervantes’ death, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s ‘joyous’ (Guardian) production of this legendary comic novel is told by a company of 20 actors accompanied by a band of live musicians.
Adapted for the stage by James Fenton and directed by Angus Jackson this ‘magical’ (Telegraph) production has opened to critical acclaim at the Garrick Theatre playing until 2nd February.
2hrs 45min (incl. interval)
Recommended age: 8+
27th October, 2018
2nd February, 2019
Cast list: Will Bliss, Raphael Bushay, Farrell Cox, John Cummins, Richard Dempsey, Ruth Everett, Gabriel Fleary, Rufus Hound, Richard Leeming, Nicholas Lumley, Natasha Magigi, Tom McCall, Joshua McCord, Bathsheba Piepe, Rosa Robson, Timothy Speyer, David Threlfall and Eleanor Wyld.
Location: West End
Railway station: Charing Cross
Bus numbers: (Charing Cross Road) 24, 29, 176; (Strand) 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 23, 87, 91, 139
Night bus numbers: (Charing Cross Road) 24, 176, N5, N20, N29, N41, N279; (Strand) 6, 23, 139, N9, N11, N13, N15, N21, N26, N44, N47, N87, N89, N91, N155, N343, N551
Car park: Leicester Square, Whitcomb Street (3mins)
Directions from tube: (2mins) Follow Charing Cross Road parallel to Leicester Square until you reach the theatre on your left.
Following a sold-out run at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2016 for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 400-year anniversary season, this musical-filled adaptation of Cervantes’s novel transfers to the West End for a limited time only. Starring David Threlfall (“Shameless”) as Don Quixote and Rufus Hound (“Celebrity Juice,” “The Wind in the Willows”) as Sancho Panza, this joyous story is told by a company of 20 actors, accompanied by a band of live musicians.
After reading a multitude of books on chivalry, an eccentric Spanish gentleman, Alonso Quixano, decides to set out on a quest to become a knight, renaming himself Don Quixote de la Mancha. Unprepared but accompanied by his faithful sidekick, Sancho, he sets out on a hysterical journey across medieval Spain, with the aim of conquering evil and protecting those who are more vulnerable. As he becomes increasingly delusional, the hilarious adventures of the two ill-fated heroes become increasingly calamitous. With puppetry, comic props, improvised comedy and music, James Fenton’s glorious adaptation brings Cervantes’s novel gloriously to life.
Look out for Robert Innes Hopkins’s design when Quixote is confronted by a giant cut-out of himself.
The show begins with a rumba by composer Grant Olding about King Arthur – the first of 16 songs and poems across 32 episodes.
The play originally ran in 2016 in Stratford-upon-Avon, to coincide with the 400-year anniversary of the death of the author, Miguel de Cervantes, whose two-part novel “Don Quixote” was published in the early 1600s.
Unfortunately, tickets for this event are no longer available.
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