Cyrano | State Theatre Centre | Until 5th Mar | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Quick witted, laugh-out-loud funny, incredibly emotional, and thought provoking on so many different levels, Virginia Gay’s new exploration of the classic story of Cyrano De Bergerac is theatre at its very best.
Melbourne audiences had a long wait for this show. The city headed in to Covid lockdown just as the production was about to make its world premiere. Months later it had its opening night and garnered reviews equally of acclaim and slight confusion.
Right at the top of the show the actors boldly make their return to the stage and acknowledge the ‘human soup’ that the close confine of being in an audience now feel like.
The action takes place backstage at a theatre, the actors are simultaneously both themselves and their characters in this adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s classic tale.
The characters regularly speak directly to the audience and straight off the bat it’s acknowledged that this is a story we all know, but maybe actually we don’t know it at all.
‘Should we just go to the part with the balcony?” asks one of the members of the three-person chorus.
Immediately we recall the tale of Cyrano, the man with a huge nose, who helps his friend Christian woo the beautiful Roxanne. Roxanne falls in love with Christian’s good looks, but it’s Cyrano’s words that win over her heart.
But how does the story end? Does anyone remember? What is this play really about? What’s it about today, in the age of enthusiastic consent and gender equality? As the characters highlight it is one of the original ‘catfishing’ tales.
Robin Goldsworthy, Zenya Carmellotti and Holly Austin form the classical chorus of the show, trading barbs and setting the scene for the action. Joel Jackson is perfectly cast as the handsome Christian, or Yan as he likes to be known. Tuuli Narkle is the production’s Roxanne – a woman of both beauty and brains, while Virginia Gay takes on the title role in this gender-flipped take.
The clever lines fly quickly in the script that is reminiscent of the comedy of Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Cyrano is filled with laughs throughout, not little giggles or chortles, huge bellowing laughs filled the theatre.
Cleverly Gay plays Cyrano without his most famous attribute, a hugely out of proportion nose. And while the giant schnoz is referred to through the play, the decision to shun prosthetics means Cyrano’s challenge is dealing body image, making it very accessible and universal. Everyone has something about their body that they don’t like.
While the show fires on all cylinders in the comedy stakes, it also successfully delivers moments of drama, emotional turmoil and euphoria.
Cyrano is not the story of the man with the big nose, this is an investigation of what that story can teach us in today’s world.
Virginia Gay is unapologetically brilliant in this work that she wrote and stars in. Her on-stage presence is bold and brave, and her version of Cyrano shows the best and worst of all of us.
The most enjoyable piece of theatre I’ve watched in recent time, and last night’s audience gave them a well-deserved standing ovation.
See Cyrano as part of the Perth Festival. Remaining tickets are on sale now.
Graeme Watson, images Daniel Grant
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