Floating Island

A modern funny-bitter story

 

"What sold more: Don Quixote or the Bible? 

It depends, there are times in which people believe in God and times when they believe in themselves."

 

Two present day prisoners, an intellectual librarian and a simple minded crook, sit in their cell and read Cervantes’ Don Quixote in religious like repetition. They literally "break" the fourth wall of their cell and of the stage, but the border between reality and insanity can be too fragile. 

 

This is not an adaptation of the great novel by Cervantes but an original modern tale that can take place in any prison around the globe with a library in it. This is the story of friendship between two men, and about the necessity of fighting the windmills inside ourselves.

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Characters (3M, 2F)

Inmate 1, Don Quixote

Inmate 2, Sancho Panza, Don 2

Guard, Slave Trader, Doctor

Nurse, Madam in a brothel 

Wife of Inmate 2

 

The time: today.

The first act takes place in a prison cell and prison yard, and in the world of the novel Don Quixote. 

The second act takes place in the psychiatric ward for ex-consand inside the mind of inmate 1. 

 

The play was directed by Yevgeni Arye and produced in Gesher Theatre, 2015

under the title: I, Don Quixote (an extanded version of the play for 22 actors)

International tours: Perm opera and Ballet Theater, Russia (2016), National Theater of China in Beijing (2017).

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 The translation was produced with the support of the Israel Lottery Council For Culture & Arts

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An extract from the play

Translated from Hebrew

by Jeffery Ophir

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