I read the play “The Man Of La Mancha” by Dale Wasserman, Joe Darion and Mitch Leigh. The Man Of La Mancha is set in the age of the Spanish Inquisition in Spain. The set begins in a dank prison cell scene filled with prisoners that await judgment of the captain of the Inquisition. A man named Cervantes enters with his man servant with a large chest and sets himself down in the cell to await his fate. The prisoners see the chest and take the advantage to loot through and get some luxury items but the chest is filled with wigs and make-up. A judge arrives to question Cervantes and give him an opportunity to plead his case. Cervantes says that his case would best be described in a play. The summons the prisoners to play the roles of the people he encounters and has his man servant play Sancho, while Cervantes plays Don Quixote. Don Quixote and Sancho are riding on horses along a stretch of highway when Quixote comes across a windmill that he believes is a giant while Sancho tells him repeatedly that it’s a windmill. Quixote runs off
Don Quixote is a static character when it comes down to it. He begins believing he is a knight and leaves the play believing he is a knight. He has one objective in life and that is to live the life of a knight. He is generally a nice guy and a noble man to things that are good in life and believes that justice will always prevail. Sancho is also a static character, he begins a noble, loyal squire and ends the play a noble, loyal squire. His objective is to serve his lord and nothing more than that. His obstacle is his master itself, he tries to get through to him but it almost never works. Aldonza is the only character that changes. She goes from not believing that Quixote is noble man to loving him full heartedly. Her obstacle in life is herself, she believes she is a whore and nothing more than that, but with the help of Quixote she realizes that she is still a person and deserves good treatment like any other person in the world.
I loved this play so much. It was so much fun to read and I wish that I could act in this play more
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