A fact that springs immediately to mind is that the novel arouses cruel laughter. The old man who goes mad with the frenzy of reading and his odoriferous squire were created to be the easy targets of cruel jokes.

But, if you go deeper, putting aside the Castilian humour, you can interpret the story in a different, quite satirical way: a generous and loveable soul, full of the spirit of adventure and capable of being surprised, in a vulgar and anti-romantic world, ends up by appearing as mad.

In the play, a positive bond is created between the spectator and Don Quixote, at the same time producing amusement and reflection. The ingenious invention of Cervantes, who through humour paradoxically creates cruelty, bringing a society face to face with itself (Quixote is an implacable distorting mirror), is translated into a stage play that doesn't merely reproduce the script, but attempts to dig down and seek out the Quixote that lies buried in each one of us, both artists and audience.

WHAT THE INTERNATIONAL PAPERS SAY

...back come the thousand tricks of Nucleo, back comes the spectre of the Inquisition that stifles free thought. Quixote as the hero of tolerance, but also of the Utopia that is truly difficult to appease... an hour and a half of performance in a square crowded with hundreds of people, rushing up as if to the call of the town crier...
La Nuova, Ferrara (I)

..the Italian company Teatro Nucleo was able to provoke the public of Malaga with its feats of fire and water, between the ground and the sky of the small Ramon Marìn Square, as if going back to the past with Medieval puppeteers to what could be any village festival...
SUR, Malaga (E)

...The Teatro Nucleo has wrapped up its avowal of love to the imagination and to the "values of the spirit" in a fascinating play of colours, fire and movement. The actors display themselves in the attire of jugglers and comedians, creating an enthralling street show that it's impossible to pull yourself away from...
NWZ, Oldemburg (D)

The knight of the triste figura and his servant conquer the hearts of the audience in the twinkling of an eye... the wit of the director knows no bounds and is worthy of special praise for the richness of the episodes and the competent changes of scene... The actors had to take several bows before the applause of the crowd, and nobody wanted to believe the play had come to an end...
Westfalen Blatt, Bielefeld (D)

...the actors never stopped changing identity: inquisitorial priests, cripples, prostitutes, decadent princes, warriors... Against the background of Spanish songs, Don Quixote, the humanist and righter of wrongs to the point of hallucination, went to face his chimera...
La Republique du Centre, Chateaudun (F)

...a crazy and pyrotechnic performance which for an hour and a half generously gave out gifts of imagination, scenic effects, sensational images, laughter and amusement...
Libertà, Piacenza (I)

...the Italo-Argentinean group presented us with theatre for both the eyes and the stomach... at the centre of the castle square they created an overwhelming and pleasant world, an alternative to the theatre of words, brimming with thoughts and reflection... A living theatre, creative and human, freed from all the weight of culture...
Badische Neueste Nachrichten, Rastatt (D)

... the sleeping of reason celebrates the triumph of the fantastic imagination: sex and violence, cruelty and magic, physical brutality unfurled in an eternal struggle, all at the service of a Dionysian excitement that makes blazing wheels rise up out of nothing, ropes, rags that open like veils in the air, in a testing encounter for the body of the actors, culminating in the grand final orgy of the vintage...
Hystrio, Milano (I)

Name of play: "Quijote!"
Length: 75 minutes (no interval)
Place of performance: Square or street closed to traffic and with no parked cars or other vehicles; compact ground with no obstacles and/ or steps!
Performance area dimensions: 30 m x 12 m ( see plan overleaf )
Set building time: 8 hours (the morning of the performance)
Set removal time: 3 hours (immediately after performance)

The play starts after sunset.

During the building the place of performance must be reserved exclusively for the Company.

The set includes a structure (the windmill) of height 7 m and width 6 m. Please take into account the danger of overhead cables, street lighting etc.

Access to the area required for one lorry (height 3.40m, width 2.50 m, total weight 7.5 t) and one van with trailer. The Organiser must obtain the necessary permits. The lorry and van are needed in the building of the set.

Electricity connection:
380 V / 32 A (three-phase, 20 kW) + neutral + earth, no further than 30 m from the centre of the performance area.

Darkness:
The lighting is an important part of the play. We therefore need darkness during the performance. At the end of the play we will need enough light to take down the set.

Water:
A tap is needed (one inch, half inch or quarter inch) with quite strong water pressure for rain effect, no further than 15 m from the centre of the performance area.

Personnel:
2 Technicians for unloading/building/removal/loading and, if necessary, for surveillance during the performance.
1 Electrician for connecting up the lights (at the start of building the set) and for switching the audience lights on and off before and after the performance.
1 Manager with the power to take decisions.

Dressing rooms:
One room next to the performance area for use as a dressing room and for the preparation of the costumes, with electricity and toilet facilities. The room will be used throughout the entire day of the performance.

Steps or chairs can be put up along the sides of the performance area for seating the audience.

Flaming objects and small, authorised fireworks will be used during the performance.

Please inform us of any technical problems at least two weeks before the date of the performance.