Cyrano de Bergerac
Swan Theatre
Playing until 15 November
Cyrano de Bergerac is a French 1897 verse drama in five acts by Edmond Rostand. The RSC’s version is an adaptation by director Simon Evans and Debris Stephenson. The play is about the life of the poet and soldier Cyrano whose diffidence in love is the main thrust of the plot. Cyrano can’t quite manage to show his love for his childhood friend Roxanne, here played by Susannah Fielding, , when she tells him she has fallen for Levi Brown’s inarticulate farmer soldier Christian de Neuvillette, Cyrano writes Christian’s love letters for him and tells him how to woo Roxanne.
I have to admit that I was a bit bemused by the beginning of the play. It wasn’t really made clear why it was set in a theatre because Cyrano’s interest in poetry and drama had not been established before he was introduced. I knew that the original play was written in hexameters but I couldn’t hear any in the English version. Instead I heard a variety of verse forms and wondered whether the play was a satire on French poets. It was not until the interval when I read Debris Stephenson’s article in the programme that I learned what she had done. I have to admit in the second half that I could still not really hear the ways of presenting the different characters by means of their distinctive poetic voice. Nevertheless I think it’s really useful to read the articles about the verse and the sound before you go into the theatre.
Once the first part in the theatre is over we meet the soldiers and begin to get the story. It was pretty clear from this point on. The rectangular thrust stage works well and the gentle mist creates a sort of French atmosphere. In the first part of the play director goes a bundle in getting audience involvement with actors speaking from all over the theatre, getting audience members to hold things for the actor/characters, having musicians on stage and walking through the theatre, creating comic use of the musical instruments and using entrances from behind the stalls audience. Because the first scene is set in a theatre some audience members have to move seats in order to free the places for the actor audience.
The scenes with the soldiers are full of sexual innuendo which the audience loved the night I saw it and the soldiers have an Irish style chorus. There’s a nicely done sword fight. Roxanne’s straightforward plainness contrasts well with the exaggerated farcical movements and gestures of the soldiers. The second half of the play sees the mood shift from sometimes farcical comedy to sombre reality and eventually pathos as Cyrano admits and reveals his love for Roxanne and as Christian demonstrates his increased maturity and considerable character development before he is the only one apparently to be killed in the battle. The final section of the play sees Cyrano going to see Roxanne and with them both realising their missed opportunities. Autumn leaves drop, the mist returns, as does the boy Cyrano who has appeared several times during the play.
I have to admit that this was not my favourite text or production but it was splendid to see Adrian Lester in superb form, his character clear and by far the most stable, and his acting impeccable.