I think it's the nature of theater to have delays and stretch out scenes - for dramatic suspense, to meet some arbitrary (economic maybe) expected time range, who knows? Perhaps I'm delaying now... It may be the nature of any written work, then.
Anyways, there were definitely scenes that lost my attention or my ability to follow or both. Given that the play lasted about 2 hours, these scenes could have been cut out.
What I loved about the play was preserved, however:
1. The poetry. I'm not going to pretend to know much about poetic meter and rhythm. But those couplets, especially the ones started by one character and finished by another, added great harmony to the play.
2. The crossed lovers: Roxane and Cyrano.
As if the cousin thing wasn't already a bit weird, the role of Cyrano was played by a girl in this rendition. My roommate did not like it. I did not like it at first. Especially because Christian was played by a guy who probably can be an Armani model if he doesn't feel like going to Yale anymore and I really couldn't imagine Roxane loving Cyrano over Christian in the end.
But I suppose that is the power of acting. The girl who played Cyrano de Bergerac did justice to the nose speech and every other great speech in the play (I LOVED the nose speech - Cyrano's list of alternative insults in every genre as a comeback to a rival's lame attack on his nose: "Your nose is large"). Here it is below:
Throughout the play, the actress's performance conveyed these aspects of Cyrano's noble character:
His violent threats against those who pretend to entertain.
His suave moves on a lowly server girl just to make her day.
His great pride blown by his self-image and unrequited love for a beautiful girl.
His desire to make her happy, even if another man gets to have her.
His ability to express his feelings because he genuinely and deeply feels them.
His satisfaction with being emotionally intimate with Roxane, not physically intimate.
His magnanimity in acknowledging the worthiness of a rival.
By the death scene, you forget Cyrano is played by a girl. Instead, all you see is a great poet and human being. I discovered, sitting there as Cyrano made his 10-minute dying speech and Roxane cries, "I loved one man all my life and lost him twice!" that we should all aspire to have a Cyrano-like death. I don't mean we should all want a piece of wood to fall on our heads after surviving several duels and a war. I mean we should sorta want people to feel immense regret and reverence at our deathbeds. How can we do this? Well, the answer is right under our noses: live life in a way that your inner beauty trumps even the most exquisite outer beauty.
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