Lavish. Painterly. Sumptuous. Elegant. Winsome.
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| T Charles Erickson |
These are just a few of the words that floated through my mind while watching the Guthrie’s delicious new show Cyrano de Bergerac (Cyrano) last night.
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| T Charles Erickson |
The tale of the monster and the damsel falling in love has been a popular story spanning centuries. We’ve all heard of Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or even (more modernly) The Shape of Water. The best of these, however, might be Cyrano de Bergerac – and let me tell you why.
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| T Charles Erickson |
The best way I can think of to summate Cyrano is that it’s a mashup of Beauty and the Beast and The Three Musketeers. Cyrano de Bergerac is a dangerously efficient swordsman and perhaps the most gifted poet of the land. He is charming, charismatic, courageous and chivalrous, but there’s one problem: his nose. Cyrano has an enormous, deformed nose that takes over his face and becomes a point of conversation everywhere he visits. He has learned to deal with this and his life would be happy but for one thing: he is desperately in love with his second cousin Roxane, a beautiful and equally intelligent woman, but is convinced she could never love him because he is ugly. When he learns Roxane is in love with a handsome – but dumbstruck – fellow soldier named Christian, Cyrano hatches a plan to write Christian’s letters and speeches of love to Roxane, essentially combining his soul and Christian’s face into one spectacular lover. The plan works swimmingly until Christian realizes that Roxane is really in love with Cyrano through the letters he has written and that his pretty face is no longer enough; unfortunately, Christian dies before he is able to tell her, and Roxane and Cyrano spend the next 14 years in comfortable friendship before she learns too late that Cyrano’s was the voice she loved so well.
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| T Charles Erickson |
This large cast seems even larger thanks to a constant transformation between various wigs, facial hair and costumes. It’s a dizzying array that only works due to the excellence of this band, led first and foremost by the awe-inspiring Jay O. Sanders as Cyrano. Sanders has so much gravitas in his performance; he reminded me on stage of a Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellan, possessing a Shakespearean temperament but a French joie de vivre. It’s a potent combo, and the cast swans around him to meet his excellence. Jennie Greenberry is wonderful as Roxane, completely charming the audience from her first line. Ansa Akyea had the audience in stitches as the multifaceted Ragueneau; he truly is our local Idris Elba, and I’m always so happy to see him in leading roles on main stages. Remy Auberjonois brings his best Dumasian Three Musketeers temperament to his role as the captain Le Bret, giving the show a steadfastly honest pillar. Cameron Folmar is excellent as the slimy Count de Guiche, managing to make the character sympathetic despite his despicable tendencies – no mean feat. And I have to call out Nate Cheeseman from among the many supporting company members, all of whom were excellent. Between his sniveling Wickham and lively soldiering in Cyrano, Cheeseman is quickly becoming my favorite period actor in #tctheater. He manages to find the comedy and special moments in every show he’s in, and his quick punctuations throughout Cyrano are definite highlights.
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| T Charles Erickson |
As alluded to before, not only is the acting rock solid, but this is easily my favorite production design so far this year. Cyrano glitters from every feathered cap to bejeweled high heeled shoe, and it’s a stunning visual. The set, designed by McKay Coble, is a life-size lacquered cabinet of curiosities, which is slowly stripped away and re-set in ever-sparser iterations as the action unfolds. Jan Chambers provides the *most* lavish costumes; it seems nearly every character is dripping in laces and capes and gloves and jewels, shining sumptuously at us from the stage and manipulated with charisma by each performer. I didn’t see a person named for the wig and facial hair design, but I have to call it out separately – they add so much to place us firmly in the French aristocracy, and it truly enhances the fantasy and comedy of each scene. Ditto for the makeup and prosthetics team, who do a superb job crafting Cyrano’s infamous nose (which is made fresh for every – yes *every* – single performance). The all-female blocking team, including Kara Wooten for fighting, Maija Garcia for movement, and Lauren Keating for intimacy, clearly coached this cast to perfection down to the last twitch of a fingertip. Elisheba Ittoop provides soft, looming context with her sound design, and Rui Rita gives us truly painterly lighting design – every scene is like looking through a Rembrandt, and it makes those gorgeous sets and costumes gleam even more richly.
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| T Charles Erickson |
All the elements of this show perfectly align to make a delicious performance. It’s visually sumptuous, beautifully acted, and the story is just so captivating. Not quite fairy tale, not quite romance, it exists in a liminal space between genres that truly has something for everyone. Swordfights? There’s one every other scene! Comedy? The lines are often hilarious plays on words! Romance? Everyone is trying to woo each other in this show! Drama? Cyrano closes with a soft, wistful monologue that has all the gravitas of Hamlet‘s soliloquy.
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My favorite part about Cyrano is that it fully resists easy answers. As an audience, you can’t help falling in love with Cyrano’s beautiful soul and weep for his loneliness. However, as the character himself says – this is not a story where the beast transforms into a prince. The lesson in Cyrano is not only that looks are not the most important part of a person, but that sometimes we are our own greatest inhibitors of happiness. Had Cyrano just told the truth, he may have been able to spend many happy years with his love. It’s a deceptively poignant play, and is in my top three favorite shows I’ve ever seen at the Big G.
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| T Charles Erickson |
The Guthrie clearly spared no expense in putting on this production and it certainly paid off. This show would make a delightful date night and if for nothing but the eye candy (although the content is pretty good too!), it’s certainly worth a trip. Click here for more information or to get tickets before Cyrano closes on May 5.
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| T Charles Erickson |