The Jamie Lloyd Company’s West End revival of “Cyrano de Bergerac” is coming to the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a limited run in May. Directed by the theater company’s namesake, Jamie Lloyd, the adaptation by Martin Crimp is a postmodern take on the Edmond Rostand love story, featuring beatboxing, silver-tongued characters in street clothes.
“It’s not the most difficult role I’ve played onstage but I would say it’s the trickiest,” said James McAvoy, who plays the title role and was nominated for a best actor Olivier Award for it on Tuesday. “While its themes and narrative are universal, Rostand sets it in a heightened world where language and oratory ability are as powerful as weapons.”
The classic version follows Cyrano, played by McAvoy, who is smitten with Roxane, played by Anita-Joy Uwajeh, but convinced he is too unattractive to win her affection. Instead, he helps the better-looking but inarticulate Christian, played by Eben Figueiredo, find the words to woo her. As the audiences will discover, the love triangle in this production has a modern twist to it.
(The production also received Olivier nominations for best revival, best director and for best supporting actress, for Michele Austin.)
“Jamie wanted us to be true to ourselves as much as possible,” McAvoy said in an interview. “In some way I feel as though I’m playing myself more than some idea of Cyrano and I suspect many of the cast feel the same way.”
“So how will the American crowd take to that?” In Britain, he said, people “seemed to eat it up, so hopefully we’ll find the same thing at BAM.”
The play is scheduled to run from May 8 through May 31. Tickets go on sale for members on March 10 and for the general public on March 20.
Source: Theater - nytimes.com
