STAGE CYRANO DE BERGERAC STEFAN KYRIAZIS
★★★★★ Harold Pinter Theatre, London, until March 12, Theatre Royal Glasgow, March 18-26, atgtickets.com
Astonishing, exhilarating, visceral and ferociously tender, this theatrical tour de force, headlined by a staggering James Mcavoy, dazzles, dazes and amazes.
Martin Crimp’s adaptation and Jamie Lloyd’s direction breathe new life into Edmond Rostand’s 1897 verse play about a poet warrior cursed with a hideous nose who secretly scripts declarations of love to Roxane on behalf of a hot-but-dim rival. Ostensibly still set in the original 1640s Paris, but in modern dress with minimal staging (chairs, microphone stands and a huge mirror), the percussively updated language rattles between a barrage of street-slanging rap battles and achingly romantic interludes. The entire cast is strong, backed by Vaneeka Dadhria’s atmospheric beatboxing.
Mcavoy’s magnetic, muscular presence prowls the stage, wrapping his rich native burr around the luxurious verse. Strapping and sometimes shirtless with no honking hooter in sight, he’s undeniably magnificent – his tormented “ugliness” is pointedly only verbalised in a world where language shapes emotion and reality. Rage and rapier wit mask his vulnerability as he hides his love.
Evelyn Miller is a suitably beautiful Roxane but impressively wields the character’s updated agency and trapped fury against a male-dominated world. Eben Figueiredo is initially appropriately blank as the handsome Christian, happy to be Cyrano’s mouthpiece to get the girl, then deeply affecting as he starts to doubt his own value and question the deception. The production adds a potent chemistry between the men, exploding into a kiss that’s more about connection than sexuality.
The show surges to a devastating end. Cyrano stands centre stage. Mid-verse the lights go out leaving us bereft, reeling in the dark. Utterly extraordinary.