Ode to Madness ’05 | COMEDIANTS Theatre company

A large-format itinerant show in homage to the figure of Don Quixote, in the fourth centenary of the book’s publication.

Ode to Madness is Comediants’ homage to the sane, lucid and charming madness of Don Quijote, as a source of imagination, vitality, fantasy and utopia.

This moving performance, produced by Elsinor and created by Comediants for the 400th anniversary of Don Quijote, was inspired by the most popular elements of Cervante’s novel’s universe, and it is meant to turn the city into a giant stage.

The cavalcade is made up of 10 allegorical images and their music and actions, conceived as moving hors d’oeuvres. 140 musicians and actors take part in the play and all the audience is invited to participate in the final development.

The performance starts with the presentation of the different characters and stages on wheels, which move on to create a starting tableau. The second travelling part brings on more characters recently emerged from Don Quijote’s imagination. The third part is a tournament between the knight and all the chimeras polluting his mind.

Ode to Madness is the recreation of a previous project: Las Nuevas Justas de Zaragoza. 1est Quijote’s tournament of the digital era, performed in celebration of the Day of Aragón and the Book day, on April, 23rd 2005 in Zaragoza.

Inspired by the following words: “…that Don Quijote might go to the kingdom of Aragón and to the city of Zaragoza where the most formal Jousts were to be celebrated for Saint George’s day, and where he could achieve fame…”.

In the end, Don Quijote didn’t get to go to the 1605 tournament. However, once in contact with his endless imagination, Comediants is proud to put him right in the city center of Zaragoza, where all preparations for the 2008 Ext were already underway.

The project was aimed at promoting the arts and culture and it was commissioned by the Education, Culture and Sports Department of the Aragon government. Its creation involved local professional and amateur artists and Comediants’ staff.

A total of 21 travelling stages and 150 performers, musicians, actors, drivers and experts.