Play a Day: Don Quixote at Tiananmen Square

Daniel Ho

Since April 1, 2017, I have read 120 full-length plays as part of my "Play a Day" series. This year has been stranger than most, for obvious reasons, and went by, if not with speed, but without much distinction from one day to the next. But the plays stand out.

A large number of them had to do with injustice, in particular injustice against women. But they were each unique and stylish and most of them very, very good.

It is an inspiration to read these works, and I am glad to take one month a year to just binge on them.

For Thursday, the last day of April, I read Don Quixote at Tiananmen Square by Daniel Ho and posted at New Play Exchange.

The fictional knight of Cervantes appears in Bejing during the spring of 1989 to inspire a young man who sees himself as a harsh realist during a season of hope and idealism. Cervantes' Quixote was mad, and madness led him from a life of unhappiness to one of wonder and magic. Do we need to be insane to hope for freedom? To have the passion to fight against incredible odds?

When I say "we" I don't mean Americans. We don't know what form oppression takes, as fools stage protests because they cannot golf, or get haircuts. Today they, we protest on behalf of the system. I wonder how this play would appear with an all-white cast (with perhaps a Chinese-American Quixote) to illuminate what true oppression looks like. If those who would hold signs reading "Sacrifice the Weak" were to hear the words of these young Chinese students frm the mouths of those who appear like them, they might understand.

Or not. The world went mad a long time ago.

Thirty plays, thirty days. We will write, we will read. Stay well.