Cyrano De Bergerac

From our director…

“Cyrano works surprisingly well as an ensemble play, with plenty of opportunity for physical spectacle. It is also a timeless theme of how destructive a low self esteem can be. With a solid combo of comedy and tragedy and an appreciation for poetry, it is such a lovely play to perform. I once saw a sensational appearance of him in the French theme park Pui Du Fou, which really inspired me to go big in the sensation in our play - our audience should walk away with a bit of panache in their soul.

I vaguely remember seeing the iconic picture of Cyrano with his nose and plumed hat long ago, but a fresher memory is a skit by Mitchell and Webb in which Cyrano coaches a modern day Brit to woo a woman by shouting “Oy, Debbie!”.

What I really wanted to see on stage was the sword fighting, since the play mentions it more times than it's shown - it says he fought a hundred men, so let's see him fight a hundred men! (Alright, seven). I also wished to see Cyrano’s anguish pop off the page, and Nick (Cyrano) does a stellar job at making everyone in the audience feel along with him.

I am -ahem- not the most physically gifted person, making it challenging for me to organise the physical spectacle; without accidentally poking any eyes out with the rapiers, at least. It pushed me to lean into other people's strengths. This collaborative spark really worked to the play’s advantage because Stan (Fight Choreo) was amazing to bounce crazy ideas off of. He'd make the ideas technically viable while adding his enthusiasm and creativity. It wasn't just him - the sword fighting group Bataille trained all the actors in the fighting basics.

We have people dancing, making music, singing and more, all because we strove to make room for everyone's strengths and ideas. It also helps that we have quite some young actors who are basically made out of rubber bands, so they just bounce all over the stage without getting hurt (so far).

It's not just the people on stage, either! Dorus (Props) has researched and created an amazing amount of appropriate hats and muskets, they're gorgeous. Not to mention costumes and set. Really, there's just so much passion in there, they're all amazing.

My favourite character is Cyrano, who is a kind of director himself when he directs Christian (Artem Yemelianov) in how to move and act, but I also have a soft spot for De Guiche (Brad Hilas). He has the strongest arc in the play, and he's also just such a royal jackass. Brad just manages to play him in a way that makes you both hate and love him….

…Oooh, and baker Raguenau (Ryan Wakamiya) with his frenzied egg-juggling baking assistants who are also weirdly into him?

…And Roxane (Marjolein Naudé), who fancies herself a delicate waif but actually marches right into a war zone together with her (in our version) mercenary Duenna (Amanda Kemshaw)? Gosh, there's just so many!

Watch out for flying eggs, and a cannon that's just slightly droopy because it's really a rolled up yoga mat. Keen eyes will see how Christian manages to scale a balcony on stage and how Cyrano has his very own 'tangents'. That's what we call the musical/dance performers who accompany his monologues when he literally goes off on a poetic tangent again.”

- Alex Elroy