The Edinburgh Fringe Archive – Little Soldier Productions (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, 2014)

The Edinburgh Fringe Show, with Ewan Spence

The Fringe is not just a recruiting vehicle for Live at the Apollo, there’s more to comedy, more to the Fringe, than that. You can have theatrical performances that bring the art of clowning and farce to the stage alongside pathos and examination of the human condition.

In 2014, Little Soldier Productions brought its first production to the Fringe, the aforementioned Don Quixote show, which took massive liberties with the story, twisted reality and fantasy, and ignored any semblance of structure… in other words did a Don Quixote to the classic Don Quixote structure.

So, on a raised wooden platform with just a guitar, some pillows and a few homemade swords, new company Little Soldier recreate the story of the misguided knight, Don Quixote, and his faithful servant, Sancho Panza, with the enthusiasm of DIY amateurs. It may look all over the place, but it’s cunningly constructed. These clowns know exactly what they are doing.

The Guardian / * * *

At the Fringe, it was awarded The Stage’s Award for Acting Excellence, and since then it has seen over 130 performances in 5 different countries. Little Soldier has gone on online talks, presentations, workshops, and five more shows, including “Nothing Happens (Twice)” which graced the stage at London’s Soho Theatre this summer.

Once the podcast team stumbled over the show, we couldn’t wait to get everyone from the show into the studio and on to the podcast. In 2014 we were broadcasting live on community radio as well as publishing the podcast, which meant rather more energy in the room from myself and co-host Dan Lentell from the Edinburgh49 website.

So let’s go back to the Zoo Southside, to the cellar of the Zoo, in 2014, and find a tiny windmill from Little Soldier’s “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha”.

• Find out more from Zoo Studios here.. Follow Little Soldier Productions on Twitter @LittleSoldierP, or on its website www.littlesoldierproductions.co.uk.

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