Der Mann von La Mancha

As a traitor to the State and the Church, the poet Miguel de Cervantes is imprisoned to await his trial. But before this happens, he must answer to a tribunal of his fellow prisoners. Cervantes casts his plea in the form of a play which he stages with the other prisoners. He himself plays the part of his dreamy protagonist Alonso Quijana, who, as the knight Don Quixote, tries to fight against an evil world armed only with his naive idealism. The purifying breadth of the imagination enters the demoralising confinement of the dungeon, clearing the stage for the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance, the man of La Mancha ...

After the playwright and screenplay writer Dale Wasserman had read Cervantes' novel "Don Quixote" in Madrid in 1959, he became convinced that this material could not and should not be dramatized. Instead, his interest was focussed initially on the poet himself. The few details that were known about Miguel de Cervantes' adventure-filled biography captured Wasserman's imagination and inspired him to combine the life of the Spanish national poet with the story of the hero of his novel, Don Quixote. Firstly, Wasserman created a screenplay and a stage version which was never performed and with which he was never satisfied. It was only the suggestion put forward by the producer, Albert Marre, to turn the material into a musical that allowed Wasserman to realise his vision of a free, almost improvisational piece that would nonetheless be sophisticated and challenging. Together with lyricist Joe Darion and composer Mitch Leigh, he created a work which became an international hit with audiences soon after its premiere in the staging by Albert Marre in the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in New York on 22 November 1965. Not least, "The Man of La Mancha" tells of the inspiring, purifying power of the theatre, and it is therefore the ideal piece to open the new season at the Gärtnerplatz Theatre!