The Scotsman 7 Sep 2022

The latest collaboration between Perth Theatre and Dundee Rep has had a slow gestation. The arrestingly titled Don Quixote: Man Of Clackmannanshire started life in 2014 as one of the Classic Cuts programmed by Glasgow’s A Play, A Pie And A Pint. This series took famous works of literature and repackaged them for a tiny cast and a running time of less than an hour.

Lu Kemp, artistic director of Perth Theatre, fancied having a go at Don Quixote. In its original form, the 1615 novel by Miguel de Cervantes surpasses 900 pages as it tells an epic tale of a low-tier nobleman who sets out to prove the age of chivalry is not dead. With his down-to-earth companion Sancho Panza, he heads off on a vainglorious mission as a wandering knight. It could be idealism or just plain fantasy. [READ MORE]

By Mark Fisher

MARK FISHER is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and other publications. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. He is also the editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book (both Mark Fisher Ltd).