More than a big nose: Reflecting on the RSC’s Cyrano

Closing on Saturday, November 15, Adrian Lester’s masterful RSC debut, as the eponymous lead in Cyrano de Bergerac, imbued the “old repertory war horse” with a panache Rostand’s classic deserves. Effortlessly blending the “fiercely funny and intensely romantic”, Lester majestically glided around the timbered rafters of the Swan Theatre sending his words through its stacked galleries to strike keenly at the sensibilities of each audience member.

Beyond his embellished nose Lester knows the RSC well. Born in Birmingham, the “Brum star” turned down an offer from the RSC some 35 years ago, in 1989 when the younger-Lester, freshly out of RADA felt his talents could be served better elsewhere, and he returns with decades of experience, success, and perhaps a humility his younger-self lacked. 

Lester was a grand Cyrano. Everywhere and everything all at once, with a heroic energy that creates a contagious feeling of joy and vivacity

Lester was a grand Cyrano. Everywhere and everything all at once, with a heroic energy that creates a contagious feeling of joy and vivacity. Yet, the mastery of Rostand, and the play’s adaptation by Simon Evans and Debris Stevenson, is that it gives the “production a sublimely wounded soul”. The wasted love Cyrano shares with Roxanne – the lost dreams and desires of the youthful Christian – and the insecurity of the Count de Guiche, marry to create a sense of marvellous loss. 

Lester is joined by Susannah Fielding as the widowed Roxanne and their poetic  friendship, of onomatopoeic games and secret courtship, draws one in, accentuating the pathos of Cyrano. Roxanne gives the production “huge heart,” and as my girlfriend pointed out after the show, it is “very refreshing to have female characters whose parts are written to be funny in their own-right.” 

Levi Brown was excellent, improving greatly across the production run and it is not hard to imagine that working alongside someone of Lester’s calibre is great training

Roxanne’s letters with the young Christian de Neuvillette, Levi Brown, allow Cyrano a conduit through which to express himself, as he feigns to be the handsome yet “tongue tied” provincial Christian. Levi Brown was excellent, improving greatly across the production run and it is not hard to imagine that working alongside someone of Lester’s calibre is great training. 

Christian’s bloody death is perhaps the most painful moment of the entire play. Rostand, and to a degree Cyrano, sacrifice the young man, with his dreams of a wife and a life as they work with their “hands in the soil”, for matters which he could never understand. The RSC perform it very well, continuing the great intergenerational effect that is found throughout the production as the “haunting young de Bergerac”, played by various child actors, watches on.

Finally, Scott Handy as the inhospitable Comte de Guiche is really effective. His cold character is the ultimate foil to Cyrano’s bravado and his crowd work was especially enjoyable. The casting, by Matthew Dewsbury, was excellent throughout and is something the RSC were plainly very proud of. The composer, Alex Baranowski, and the sound designer, Donato Wharton, created a wrenching score that underpinned the poetry of Rostand’s writing. Given the superstar character that Lester brings it would not be surprising for the RSC’s Cyrano to return, perhaps for a West End run or at another of their partner theatres. 

By 1983 the number of public performances of Cyrano had reached 14,000 and Rostand’s magnus opus is worthy of such acclaim. Rostand wrote Cyrano, based on the real-life 17th-century Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-55),  for Coquelin aine, one of the most celebrated French comic actors of the later 19th-century, and when first performed it enjoyed immediate acclaim. Released the very week the Dreyfus Scandal reached its peak, Rostand was a declared Dreyfusard, but never stuck his colours to the mast too clearly. Such was the success of Cyrano, Rostand was immediately elected as a chevalier de la Legion d’honneur, and soon became one of the youngest elected members of the Academie Francaise at the early age of thirty-three.

In some ways, Rostand, raised in an elite family from Marseille, inserts himself into the play through Christian the affable provencaux and Cyrano who is a Gascon. In its entirety the play is certainly a celebration of France and Frenchness, but some of this nuance is undoubtedly lost in this modernised adaptation. In Rostand’s original, Christian does not have his Birmingham accent but is rather part of the gentry with his own servants and entourage which perhaps was a sensible decision. Likewise, the reconciliation of the Comte and Cyrano never happened at the RSC, whereas Rostand insists that the Comte and Cyrano share a bond when they discover that they both come from the Midi.

These intricacies would be largely lost on a British audience, although addressing them is key to understanding some of the essence of what Rostand is trying to achieve

These intricacies would be largely lost on a British audience, although addressing them is key to understanding some of the essence of what Rostand is trying to achieve. It is a “heroic comedy” and it fights against the “excessively rule-bound literatures of French Classicism” dating from the absolute rule (1661-1715) as well as the tensions between Paris and la France profonde. Cyrano is a great play and in the RSC the ultimate entertainer meets an actor worthy of such a role, in Adrian Lester. The RSC’s run of Cyrano de Bergerac was an immense success. Selling out the Swan Theatre time and time again, it was enjoyable and aching in equal measure. It would be no surprise should it one day return, but more than anything it is great to see Rostand’s greatest work receiving the recognition that such a carefully curated production supplies.