CYRANO DE BERGERAC
****
Director: Jamie Lloyd
Screenwriter: Adapted by Martin Crimp, based on the eponymous play written by Edmond Rostand in 1897.
Principal cast:
James McAvoy
Anita Joy Uwajeh
Eben Figueiredo
Michele Austin
Tom Edden
Adrian Der Gregorian
Country: UK
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 160 mins., including a 20 min. interval.
Australian release date: Limited screenings from 14 November 2020.
The popularity of Cyrano De Bergerac never seems to falter, so it’s usually on stage somewhere in the world at any given moment. Sydney readers would remember there was a very successful version by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2014 starring Richard Roxburgh and Eryn Jean Norvill and directed by Andrew Upton. The latest rendition is the National Theatre Live production filmed at the Playhouse Theatre in London and currently gracing Australian screens for a limited period. It was touted as one of the best plays in the West End before it closed at the end of February 2020 due to the COVID epidemic. Antipodean audiences are fortunate to be able to view this splendid production now.
Cyrano De Bergerac has been brilliantly reworked by Martin Crimp and it’s a blast. He’s given it a raucous, modern interpretation, replete with a cast sporting ‘souf’ London, Caribbean and Scots accents and dressed in contemporary street gear, though it is still set in the Paris of the 1640s, as was the original. Cyrano (James McAvoy) and the other performers communicate in hip-hop style rhyme, with an on-stage beatboxer, and it works very well, cleverly updating the rhyming couplets of Rostand’s 19th century play for current-day theatre-goers. Be warned, though - there is a lot of f**k language. Filmed on a bare stage, the play opens with Cyrano De Bergerac, soldier, duellist and lover of language and letters, regaling the audience with his wit and flair at the Hotel de Bourgogne, having disrupted a performance by the actor Montfleury (Adrian Der Gregorian). As a result, he is heckled by Valvert (Nari Blair-Mangat), who mocks his extremely large nose, a bone of contention (a sore point?) for Cyrano that his fellow cadets know never to mention. Consequently, the poet/soldier, “fierce with a pen and notorious in combat”, challenges his tormenter to a duel involving both words and rapiers. Sometime after these and other adventures, Cyrano realises that his secret love for Roxane (Anita Joy Uwajeh), his beautiful cousin, is unrequited because she tells him that she loves Christian (Eben Figueiredo), a new recruit to his cadet corps. Roxane, like Cyrano, loves language and is an intellectual, but is not aware that Christian is not too articulate, having been initially attracted solely to his good looks. War is looming and as the cadets are due to leave for the battlefield, Cyrano offers to help Christian woo Roxane and pen the regular love letters needed to maintain a relationship with a woman who ultimately respects the written word more than physical beauty. This, of course, leads to much confusion and torturous affairs of the heart.
Cyrano de Bergerac is a complex study in the frailties of human nature and the strength of love. Above all, however, it is about the power of language to create change and the effect words can have on people. As Cyrano declares, “I Love Words. That’s All.” This National Theatre Live production sports sterling performances, especially the lead roles executed by McAvoy, Uwajeh and Figueiredo, but also by the entire company. McAvoy is fantastic throughout, on stage almost the whole time. By the way, he has not been given a prosthetic schnoz but he’s good enough to make you swear he’s got one! Credit must also be given to fine portrayals by Michele Austin as Ragueneau, the pastry shop owner who holds poetry readings at her premises, and Tom Edden as De Guiche, the leader of the cadets.
In Rostand’s play, Cyrano de Bergerac, there are moments of joy and tragedy, realisation and redemption. In the wrap up, lessons are learnt but, as happens in life, they are often learnt too late. This fine cast brings Crimp’s modern interpretation to life beautifully and neatly shows what people are capable of when they put love above all else.
Screenwriter: Adapted by Martin Crimp, based on the eponymous play written by Edmond Rostand in 1897.
Principal cast:
James McAvoy
Anita Joy Uwajeh
Eben Figueiredo
Michele Austin
Tom Edden
Adrian Der Gregorian
Country: UK
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 160 mins., including a 20 min. interval.
Australian release date: Limited screenings from 14 November 2020.
The popularity of Cyrano De Bergerac never seems to falter, so it’s usually on stage somewhere in the world at any given moment. Sydney readers would remember there was a very successful version by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2014 starring Richard Roxburgh and Eryn Jean Norvill and directed by Andrew Upton. The latest rendition is the National Theatre Live production filmed at the Playhouse Theatre in London and currently gracing Australian screens for a limited period. It was touted as one of the best plays in the West End before it closed at the end of February 2020 due to the COVID epidemic. Antipodean audiences are fortunate to be able to view this splendid production now.
Cyrano De Bergerac has been brilliantly reworked by Martin Crimp and it’s a blast. He’s given it a raucous, modern interpretation, replete with a cast sporting ‘souf’ London, Caribbean and Scots accents and dressed in contemporary street gear, though it is still set in the Paris of the 1640s, as was the original. Cyrano (James McAvoy) and the other performers communicate in hip-hop style rhyme, with an on-stage beatboxer, and it works very well, cleverly updating the rhyming couplets of Rostand’s 19th century play for current-day theatre-goers. Be warned, though - there is a lot of f**k language. Filmed on a bare stage, the play opens with Cyrano De Bergerac, soldier, duellist and lover of language and letters, regaling the audience with his wit and flair at the Hotel de Bourgogne, having disrupted a performance by the actor Montfleury (Adrian Der Gregorian). As a result, he is heckled by Valvert (Nari Blair-Mangat), who mocks his extremely large nose, a bone of contention (a sore point?) for Cyrano that his fellow cadets know never to mention. Consequently, the poet/soldier, “fierce with a pen and notorious in combat”, challenges his tormenter to a duel involving both words and rapiers. Sometime after these and other adventures, Cyrano realises that his secret love for Roxane (Anita Joy Uwajeh), his beautiful cousin, is unrequited because she tells him that she loves Christian (Eben Figueiredo), a new recruit to his cadet corps. Roxane, like Cyrano, loves language and is an intellectual, but is not aware that Christian is not too articulate, having been initially attracted solely to his good looks. War is looming and as the cadets are due to leave for the battlefield, Cyrano offers to help Christian woo Roxane and pen the regular love letters needed to maintain a relationship with a woman who ultimately respects the written word more than physical beauty. This, of course, leads to much confusion and torturous affairs of the heart.
Cyrano de Bergerac is a complex study in the frailties of human nature and the strength of love. Above all, however, it is about the power of language to create change and the effect words can have on people. As Cyrano declares, “I Love Words. That’s All.” This National Theatre Live production sports sterling performances, especially the lead roles executed by McAvoy, Uwajeh and Figueiredo, but also by the entire company. McAvoy is fantastic throughout, on stage almost the whole time. By the way, he has not been given a prosthetic schnoz but he’s good enough to make you swear he’s got one! Credit must also be given to fine portrayals by Michele Austin as Ragueneau, the pastry shop owner who holds poetry readings at her premises, and Tom Edden as De Guiche, the leader of the cadets.
In Rostand’s play, Cyrano de Bergerac, there are moments of joy and tragedy, realisation and redemption. In the wrap up, lessons are learnt but, as happens in life, they are often learnt too late. This fine cast brings Crimp’s modern interpretation to life beautifully and neatly shows what people are capable of when they put love above all else.