Unlike His Ghostly Heart, another play on the Fringe which is played out in the dark, where the stage is darkened and the audience can make out the actors forms, in Don Quixote, audience members are each given individual face masks and experience the whole story in the dark, even though the actors are moving about in normal lighting conditions. Audience members are blindfolded, then led to a seat. The process is respectful and safe, geared to individuals speed and comfort levels. There is, for those who want it, an option to cheat and peek out of the top of bottom of the masks (I didnt). The story unfolds through sound effects and dialogue, the main differences between this and a radio play being the feeling of being in an alien environment and the sensory experiences which the actors use to bring the drama to life. The dialogue comes over in a variety of US and UK accents. Some of the main scenes are recreated (but not the windmill scene for some strange reason). However, all told, it was effective and different. The effects were inventive and involved all the senses apart from sight and taste. The experience could have been made more extreme in some cases, the limitations being the ratio of players to audience, and some inattention to detail in terms of sound effects the horses hooves, in particular, grated with me. Pretend horses just sound like two coconut shells being tapped together to make a clip clop sound. Real horses have four hooves and make a clippety-clop sound. Its a small detail, but in the dark, aural perception is heightened and it really makes a difference, particularly when you know Quixote is riding a horse and Sancho Panza a donkey, but you only hear a single 'clip clop' pattern. This is one of those weird Fringe productions to catch if you want to experience something out of the usual.
