Cyrano de Bergerac ・ Comédie-Française

Because the Comédie-Française is always looking to renew itself, the Troupe performed a new production of “Cyrano de Bergerac” last season.

To tackle this legendary play, replete with seminal soliloquies (the nose, “no thank you”), Emmanuel Daumas elected to bet on the liveliness of youth; beside Cyrano, Christian, and Roxane, the rest of the cast delights in portraying all other fifty characters.
The story of Cyrano, who handles swords just as deftly as he does words and lends Christian his talent to help him court Roxane, takes place against a unique set designed to evolve with each of the five acts. While places such as the Hôtel de Bourgogne or Ragueneau’s house were created with flourishing Baroque inspirations, the balcony scene is set in a whimsical, fairy-like ambiance in which Méliès meets Cocteau; the stage becomes emptier when Roxane risks her life to meet her two loved ones at the Arras camp where death is lurking over an amazingly poignant feast of imaginary dishes of nothingness.
It is only when Cyrano draws his last breath that Roxane, now recluse in a convent, understands how deeply she was duped. The dreamlike setting of this comedy of heroes, this period piece sprinkled with Romanticism, bares to its very core the nature of a hero who lived and died for panache. This idealistic brawler, trapped in self-hatred and a deep fear of reality, elected to use Christian’s beauty as his avatar, according to Emmanuel Daumas. About Cyrano’s dreaming, Daumas quotes Marcel Proust: “It is better to dream your life than to live it, even if living it means dreaming it”.

This show premiered on December 8, 2023 at the Salle Richelieu

IN CINEMAS
AUTUMN 24

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