Lookingglass Theatre Will Stage CIRCUS QUIXOTE at McCarter This March

McCarter Theatre Center will present Circus Quixote, a gravity-defying theatrical spectacle from Chicago’s famed Lookingglass Theatre Company, in association with The Actors Gymnasium, running March 4–15.

Blending epic adventure with high-flying circus artistry, the production reimagines one of literature’s most iconic dreamers for a world that may need him now more than ever. Recommended for ages 8 and up

From the creators of McCarter favorites Lookingglass Alice and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Circus Quixote offers a visually dazzling interpretation of Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. Adapted and directed by Kerry and David Catlin, with circus and movement direction by Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi, the show blends storytelling, circus arts, and Lookingglass’ signature visual style to bring Cervantes’ classic vividly to life.

Somewhere in La Mancha lived a man who read so many books that his brains dried up — so he decided to become a knight. As Don Quixote embarks on a folly-filled quest to restore good deeds to the world, whether the world wants them or not, audiences are swept into a windmill-tilting adventure of imagination and heart.

The company includes Michel Rodríguez Cintra (Don Quixote), Micah Figueroa (Sansón Carrasco), Laura Murillo Hart (Dulcinea), Julian Hester (Master Nicolás), Eddie Martinez (Cervantes/Sancho Panza), Jacinda Ratcliffe (Antonia), and Olivia Lindsay (Sister Sofía), with understudies Alexander Quiñones, Austin Rambo, and Valeria Rosero. The production stage manager is Amber R. Dettmers, and the assistant stage manager is Aaron McEachran.

More relevant than ever, Cervantes’ iconic dreamer dares us to imagine a better world — and to speak truth, even when it feels impossible. As Lookingglass’ dramaturg Gabriela Furtado Coutinho writes in the program notes:

“Lookingglass Theatre Company can tell the story in a way few others can: defying gravity, lifting the most magical and fantastical elements of the text, replicating the surprise readers must have felt when it was first published.”