Jesus Christ: Man of La Mancha

It was sheer luck that I noticed the musical, Man of La Mancha, was being put on by a local theater group.  Told by a friend not to expect too much, I was greatly surprised --- yet again --- by the beautiful singing and plot of this play.  The local group did it well, and my friend went with me to see it again, and agreed with my joyful assessment of the production.

I had seen this play many times in my more youthful days, but now in my elder years I saw and heard the spirit of the play, and its spirit spoke loudly and beautifully to me in many deeply meaningful phrases.

The plot of Man of La Mancha has a playwright thrown in jail by the Inquisition.  He proceeds to entertain the rogues in the dungeon there with a play (within this play).  His play is a story about a man who decides to live his life as a knight, a warrior who would “fight for the right without question or pause.”  Obviously most around him thought him insane, but it didn’t matter to him.

One of the early “battles” the knight fights is with an ogre with four whirling arms, a great evil.  Only everyone else saw it as a windmill, but he fought it anyway, and lost, to its whirling blades.  (Looking at this story spiritually, he saw an evil and fought it, regardless of whether others agreed it was an evil or not.  I thought about the evils in our world today, which so many say really are goods --- like that of a woman’s right to choose to kill her baby.  And I thought:  “We need more knights today, fighting these battles.”)

When the knight and his friend, his squire, reach a roadside inn, they meet ruffians and whores.  While others said to pass it by, the knight spoke to the “guests of the castle” and offered to fight battles for them.  He treated them with respect --- respect others said they didn’t deserve, and these others were confused at his actions.  (And I was reminded of Jesus going among the tax collectors and other sinners.)

The knight tells one particular whore that he “sees her virtue and beauty.”  She thinks him nuts at first, but his persistent respect causes her to question:  “Why do you do these things you do?”  And when he calls her a virgin she says: “Why does he live in a world that can’t be?”  And “No one can be what he wants me to be.”

(And again, I thought of Jesus, the respect He has for all men and the challenges He issues to us, and the challenges which He wishes us to issue to the world.  Because Jesus, like the knight, despite all odds and sensibilities and trials also said:  “Virtue will triumph.”)

“Why does he give when it’s natural to take?”

“Why does he see all the good he can see?”

“Doesn’t he know he’ll be laughed at wherever he’ll go?”

(All those questions of the whore in the play are the questions that we Christians face today.)

At a certain point in the play the whore sides with the knight and his squire and they defeat the ruffians in a fight.  “Victory!” they shout.  And they celebrate, but it is short-lived, for when the ruffians recover, they grab the whore --- and have their own brand of victory.

(And so we see from the play that while there will be victories in life, for us who fight the Christian battles, there will also be defeats --- and with the defeats perhaps deep humiliations.  And these will be times when we are tempted to give up to the ways of the world.)

And then comes what seems to be the knight’s final defeat.  His friends trick him, and he is forced to see himself as they see him, as one who is delusional.  He agrees with them --- even as many Christians come to accept the critics of God and faith and accept the ways of the world.  It seems a sad ending, but it is one which the players of this play-within-a-play --- those back in the dungeon --- don’t accept.  So another ending is quickly devised.

The once-knight is seen to lie dying among his friends and family, and his once-squire.  Then the whore from the inn breaks into the bedroom scene and pleads with the dying man to recall the knight he had once tried to be and the battles he fought for virtue and right --- no matter the cost.  And then he does remember, and once more he rises and together they sing of fighting for the right, no matter the cost, to the death.  And then, suddenly, the knight dies.

There is a lamenting at his death, but then one line is said, a most critical line which can be missed if you are not paying attention.  It is the last line of the play.  In it the whore assumes a new name, the one earlier given to her by the knight.  (This alludes to all the times in the Bible where people had their name changed by God, when they had changed their ways to God’s ways:  Abram to Abraham, Simon to Peter, etc.)

The knight had died, but in death he was victorious, because one soul had changed her life --- and name.  Virtue had triumphed!

I really liked this play, for all the good music, the excellent parables describing the life we are to lead, and of the victory we may not even live to see, but will be there if we trust and persist.  This play gives me hope.

If you ever have the opportunity to see it, you should.  I think I shall see it one more time, perhaps the last time ever for me, before it closes this weekend.  As I look at the sad state of this world, I can always use another shot of hope.

To Dream The Impossible Dream

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell for a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell for a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star.