Cyrano @ Park Theatre - Review
I bet it's great if you already know Cyrano. ★★★
At Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, until 11th January 2025.
Rating: ★★★
I have never previously felt the need to see Cyrano. The plot didn’t appeal to me, and I tend to enjoy neither French nor 19th c. work. However, I am a sucker for queer retellings, and so Roast Productions’ new work at Park Theatre (written by Virginia Gay) reeled me in.
This is not an entry-level Cyrano. This is a meta, playful Cyrano by a team very clearly deeply familiar with the source text, who do not seem to fully appreciate that some people will want to see Cyrano for the first time. I think you’d love this if you have seen a faithful Cyrano previously, especially if you hated it, but I spent much of the show lost.
The Chorus (Tessa Wong; David Tarkenter; Tanvi Virmani) and Cyrano (Virginia Gay) are in cahoots to put on a production of Cyrano, with frequent interaction between chorus and characters. Dialogue bats between what appears to be original verse and commentary on the plot, with the original mentioned explicitly. Themes and criticism are skillfully woven into the plot, such that the entire piece is a thoughtful commentary on Cyrano, but it is just that, a commentary. Plot feels secondary, a formality that of course the audience knows already. Without giving too many spoilers, the ending is changed in a way that felt, as someone unfamiliar with the original, to undermine some of the criticism. But as we’ve established, I really don’t get it.
There is redemption in a knock-out cast, all wonderfully believable and engaging. Jessica Whitehurst is a fantastic Roxanne. Interestingly characterised as one of only two characters not aware they’re in a play, she brings much needed seriousness and emotional intensity to an otherwise very light, jokey play. Wong, Tarkenter and Virmani are a fantastic trio, very different energies play electrically together in wonderful casting by Naomi Downham.
There’s not a huge amount to say for aesthetics. Costuming is modern dress, occasionally used for neat visuals, like the trading of shirts between Cyrano and her love rival Yan, but largely unremarkable. The stage is stripped back, with only industrial stairs and detachable podium pieces as stage dressing, good for the meta-ness, but uninteresting. There is some neat audience participation which adds some joy to a bland set- I’ll let you discover that on your own.
This was ultimately not a play for me, which is unfortunate, but it is a funny and engaging play.
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Are you a Cyrano fan? What did you think of this interpretation?