A Cyrano De Bergerac for Our Times At BAM
The superb James McAvoy and the Jamie Lloyd Company captivated the audience at the Harvey Theater at Brooklyn’s mecca for art and culture, BAM. Cyrano De Bergerac was written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand and took place in Paris in 1640. Martin Crimp revamped it and brought it into the 21st century channeling the Lin Manuel-Miranda hip hop vernacular and putting it into contemporary themes about love, relationships, sexuality, and war. Cyrano, played by McAvoy, is known for his big nose, which doesn’t show itself as a prosthetic; nothing so obvious diminishes the power of the metaphor. We are told about it. It speaks to all the things we see in ourselves that are so little compared to who we are in totality but dwell in gray areas of our point of view and sometimes in others who see us.
While Cyrano is not handsome, James McAvoy is; the character is more compelling because of his vulnerabilities contributing to the heroic and romantic character and whose words his love interest, Roxanne, falls in love with. Only she believes that the words belong to handsome Christian — the man she is physically attracted to. She begs Cyrano to watch out for him in the regiment they both belong to. Cyrano verbally envelopes his distant cousin Roxanne in rapturous words. He writes letters for Christain, and he lives through him. This Cyrano, unlike the original, has no balcony scene with…
