Show Plot Man of Lamancha

Authors: Dale Wasserman (book), Mitch Leigh (music), Joe Darion (lyrics) inspired by Miguel de Cervantes' 17th-century novel, Don Quixote

Time Period: late 1590s around the height of the Spanish Inquisition

Setting:  A dark, stone prison dungeon in Seville, Spain and the countryside of La Mancha, Spain

Summary:  Playwright, poet, and tax collector Miguel de Cervantes is thrown into a Seville dungeon by the Spanish Inquisition for committing an offense against the church.  His fellow inmates subject Cervantes to a mock trial to steal his belongings, most notably his cherished, unfinished manuscript about a man named Alonso Quijana. To save his work, Cervantes proposes a trial of make-believe. He and his manservant transform themselves with props and makeup into the aging country squire Alonso Quijana, who goes mad and renames himself Don Quixote de la Mancha.  Enlisting the other prisoners as characters, Quixote and his loyal squire Sancho Panza set out on the open road to "right all wrongs," but reality eventually intrudes, shattering his illusion.