IT is testament to the brilliance of Cyrano de Bergerac – French dramatist Edmond Rostand’s famous 1897 play about the warrior poet with the super-sized nose – that it has proved to be amenable to such a range of adaptations.
For instance, the late, great Scottish poet and dramatist Edwin Morgan translated Rostand’s classic (which is set in 1640, in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War) into a beautiful Scots.
Morgan’s version received a fabulous production, directed by Dominic Hill for Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre Company, in 2018. It is difficult to imagine a staging more different from Hill’s (a gloriously imaginative evocation of 17th-century France) than the latest, street smart version by acclaimed English director Jamie Lloyd (which has just completed a week-long residency in Glasgow ahead of a transfer to New York next month).
Lloyd’s staging boasts a new, sometimes touching, often very funny script by celebrated dramatist Martin Crimp and – to the great excitement of many movie goers – the services of Scottish film star James McAvoy in the title role. Full of confident swagger, the production combines Rostand’s historical romance with the 21st-century hip hop culture of London’s diverse working-class youth.
READ MORE: Treasures of the National Library of Scotland exhibition set to open
Rostand, famously, wrote his play in rhyme, and Crimp has channelled that masterfully into the language of hip hop and the rhythms and rhymes of contemporary spoken word performance. At times, the actors – kitted out in modish streetwear – engage in competitive rap.
In other moments the piece seems like a poetry slam. The production is even graced by beatboxer Vaneeka Dadhria, whose talents are used, ingeniously, both as part of the musical score and as an integrated element in the dramatic soundtrack (to recreate the sounds of battle, for example).
Played on designer Soutra Gilmour’s super-minimalist set – which is created in a style one might call benevolent brutalism – the piece casts McAvoy’s Cyrano as a Scottish outsider. Clad in a tight puffer jacket and designer jeans, the X-Men star does not wear a prosthetic proboscis (director Lloyd preferring that we imagine the poet’s enormous nose).
Cyrano hides his anguish at his unattractiveness to women (and, in particular, his beloved distant cousin Roxane) behind a veneer of literate bravado. Like Brian Ferguson in the Citizens’ staging, McAvoy achieves a brilliant balance between his character’s robust ebullience and his underlying pain and vulnerability.
It is remarkable how quickly the actor enables us to suspend our disbelief and attach to the pathos of his performance a huge schnozzle that isn’t actually there.
In the midst of a universally fine cast, Eben Figueiredo shines as a humorously self-deprecating Christian (the handsome, but inarticulate soldier who wins Roxane’s heart with poetry written by Cyrano).
READ MORE: Line of Duty stars reveal secret on-set song at reunion event
Tom Edden is also superb as the repugnant aristocrat, the Count de Guiche. However, Evelyn Miller’s strident and smart Roxane is the cream of the supporting cast (particularly in the drama’s powerful denouement).
THE self-conscious coolness of the production often requires actors to stand facing the audience, even when their characters are interacting with other figures on stage. Even if one finds this irritating at times (as, I confess, I did), it does give the heartbreaking final scene between Cyrano and Roxane – in which Lloyd dispenses with the deliberate distancing of his actors – a truly powerful intimacy.
A sell-out in Glasgow, where enthusiastic audiences snapped up tickets to see McAvoy (one of the city’s most famous sons), this Cyrano isn’t necessarily worthy of the raucous standing ovation it received on Wednesday night. It is, however, a bold and excellently performed modernisation of Rostand’s enduring romance.
Cyrano de Bergerac plays BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music),
New York, April 5 to May 22: bam.org/cyrano
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here