Review: 'Man of La Mancha' a triumph

Separating a justified dreamer from just a fool is the soul of a poet in director Paul Barnes' brilliantly conceived version of "Man of La Mancha" which opened to a captivated audience at the University of Tennessee's Clarence Brown Theatre Friday night.

Performed on an equally brilliant and ingeniously designed set by Christopher Pickart, who has done the best work since the departure of the gifted Bob Cothran and whom, one hopes, becomes his successor, Barnes keeps the action tight.

So, fair warning, take care of any necessaries before the music starts, because you won't get another chance for the well over two hours Barnes' production will pull you into its enthralling storytelling.

"Man of La Mancha" isn't just a play with a famous song about the possibility of impossibilities. It's a story within the story, and another story within that one, all of which has at the center of them either Miguel Cervantes, his alter ego Alanzo Quijana, or Quijana's personification of Don Quixote, all of whom are played with total absorption by David Kortemeier, doing the best work anyone has done on the Clarence Brown Theatre stage in a while.

Cervantes, like his 16th century Italian contemporary, the genius painter Caravaggio, despite his enormous artistic gifts and often because of them, was constantly in trouble with the church or someone else.

While Caravaggio's paintings constantly reshaped the perception of who a saint was, much to the offense of ecclesiastical powers, Cervantes, in his incarnation Don Quixote, set about teaching that one's soul belongs to oneself, not that same church's, despite the ever-present shadow of inquisitions.

Although one has the sense that Kortemeier could have taken the full house on a journey with nothing more than an empty stage and a few lights, he had plenty of help.

Most notable of whom were Katy Wolfe Zahn, who, as the sassy and fearless maid Aldonza, who becomes Quixote's dream princess Dulcinea, was better than I have ever seen her, and Neil Freidman, who gave full support as both Cervantes' manservant and Quixote's squire, Sancho Panza.

Equally effective were Ryan Stem as the Padre and Curtis Pettyjohn as both the innkeeper.

There is lots of terrific singing, especially by Kortemeier, Zahn, and the trio sung by Jenna Tamisiea, who plays the housekeeper, Stem's priest and Amelia Mathews, as Quixote's niece.

For those of us of a certain age, it's hard to separate the voice of Robert Goulet from "The Impossible Dream," but on this knight, it belonged to Kortemeier.

Harold Duckett is a freelance contributor to the News Sentinel.

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