Newport nose good theater
The Newport Performing Arts Center kicks off a new season of National Theatre Live this Friday, July 8, with an intense, deep revival of Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac” starring James McAvoy.
McAvoy, seen in such films as “X-Men: First Class” and “Atonement,” returns to the stage in this inventive Olivier Award-winning adaptation, captured live in 2020 from the West End in London and broadcast in HD on the PAC’s big screen.
Fierce with a pen and notorious in combat, Cyrano almost has it all — if only he could win the heart of his true love, Roxane. There’s just one big problem: he has a nose as huge as his heart. Will a society engulfed by narcissism get the better of Cyrano, or can his mastery of language set Roxane’s world alight?
Most people know Edmond Rostand's 1897 play as a romantic, swashbuckling classic, staged with swords and capes and a big prosthetic nose. But this reimagined production dispenses with all that.
Instead, there's beatboxing, a multiracial cast in modern dress and Scottish actor McAvoy with his own regular-sized nose, rapping about how very large it is.
"This is about three people who are objectified and who suffer because of their objectification," McAvoy said. "Whether they're objectified because they are beautiful or ugly or not. It's about the feeling. And I think that not having the nose allows us to see all their pain. And wit. And passion.”
The spartan staging, where actors frequently speak into microphones and sit looking directly at the audience, instead of each other, provides a feeling of closeness.
"From an acting point of view, it makes eye contact feel so intimate," said Evelyn Miller, whose Roxane is portrayed as a college student wearing a denim jumpsuit. "To turn and look [at another actor], after doing a five-minute scene where you haven't looked at them at all — you've just been listening profoundly and intensely — to suddenly turn and make eye contact feels so intimate."
Listening to the language profoundly and intensely in this contemporary adaptation is what director Jamie Lloyd is after; not just for the actors, but for the audience.
"We paint on the back wall ... a particular sentence that Cyrano says: 'I love words. That's all,'" Lloyd said. "And in a way, that became the kind of defining idea of the entire production; it was only about the words, in a play that features characters that are obsessed with language."
The broadcast begins at 7 pm. Tickets are $20 for adults, $19 for seniors, $18 for OCCA members and $15 for students. The Newport Performing Arts Center is located at 777 W Olive Street. The Box Office is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 am to 5 pm. For more information, go to coastarts.org.