Play Produced CYRANO DE BERGERAC

by Edmond Rostand Translated by

Anthony Burgess

Esther Weatherill discusses her productionfor the

Miller Centre, Caterham.

Cyrano de Bergerac can hardly be said to be a popular choice for many amatcur societies, since it contains forty five named parts, five sets, period costume, swords, guns a carriage and a high balcony. Yet this play Is one of the most rewarding and exciting plays I have ever di­rected - perhaps because It ful­filled a near life time ambition.

thing". Rostand prOvided him with the vehicle. The flI'St night audience gave a standing ova­tion at the cnd of each act. The plot concerns thc chival­rous Cyrano de Bergerac who has a noble heart beneath a comical exterior caused by a bulbous nose which he defends with his witty tongue and dan­gerous sword. On lean11ng that Roxane, his cousin, and the object of his own passion, loves Christian de Neuvillette, he aids his rival with hcrolc self sacri ­fice. He writes his love letters and is at hand bencath the bal­cony to prompt him when he woos his lady. Christian and Cyrano both soldiers and men­bers of the Guards are sent to war on Roxane's wedding night by the Jealous Compte de

This ambition was born the day In 1946, when Ralph Richardson was knighted and I saw his evening'S performance in the title role. Since then I have followed the play: Jose Ferrer's mrn (1950) Edward Woodward (1970) Keith Mitchell (1975) and Derek Jacobi (1983) .

The play was written by Edmond Rostand In 1897 at the request of the great actor Constant Coquelin who was seeking a varied and demanding role for his prodigious talents. He wanted a part that in a single evening would tax him to per­form everything to the limit. The trouble was, the actor com­plained, "1 can do almost every-

Amateur Stage March 1990

Guiche, who is himself In love with Roxane. Christian Is killed in battle and dies In his wife's arms, she having braved the cnemy to bring food to her hus­band and the starving beselged Gascons. De Gulchc retrieves his honour by remaining with the Guards to defend Roxane and take her to safety. For fifteen years Cyrano visits Roxane weekly at the convent where she has retired. Togcther they keep Christian's memory alive. but Cyrano, at the point of death, Inadvertcntly reveals his own love and how he had helped his rival. He Is, however, de ­prived of a heroic death. His fatal Injury had been inflicted by

a servant when he dropped a log on his hcad.

CAST The part ofCyrano, by any stan­dards. Is one of the biggest ever created and a challenge to any actor. It asks him to risk every­thing in terms of a bizarre ap ­pearance, while portraying the role of the tragic lover. The actor must have grace, charm, be able to fcnce and at the same time achieve a sufficiently convinc­Ing characterization to prevent his performance from degener ­ating into a swashbuckling charlcature of a self pitying bully. Having cast the lead, six more suitable actors must be found with almost equal ability to play the supporting roles. This Is not a one man play, as it may seem at first glance. Both Roxane and Christian must be good looking otherwise there is no credulity to the plot. To many Roxane could be seen as an egoccntric and somewhat vain charactcr. We played her as a mature young woman, who is Infatuated by physical beauty yet demands to be wooed by Intellect and wit rather than passion. She must, howcvcr, remain sincere and human, so that, in the final scenes, the audience can Iden­tiJY with her tragedy and believe that shc 'only ever loved onc man', and lost him twice. Christlan's part Is unrewarding as regards the number of lines he has to speak, but satisfying

because of the scencs he acts out with Cyrano and Roxane. His lines bring humour to the play and the audience must be able to recognize the agony he feels of loving Roxane yet being tongue tied by her beauty. De Guiche is a difficult role, demanding an actor, undou b t ­edly handsome and command ­Ing in his own way, who can create also an imposing and arrogant figure. Just as impor­tantare Ragueneau and Le Bret, Cyrano's friends . The former must appear genuine as the poet-cook but never pathetic as the deserted husband. He, like Le Bret, supports Cyrano through the fiye acts and neither of them should be cast lightly or as also rans. Having cast thc leads, the din~c­

tor must then find at least an­other twenty bodies who can complement them In small but necessary roles, such as the vain Compte de Valvet, Roxane's Intended husband, who must be able to fence, Lisa, Ragueneau's unfaithful wife and her Musket­eer lover. Added to these are nu­merous courtiers, a ctors, writ­ers, poets, Gascons and n uns, all needed to complete the s tory. In the original text there are over forty five named parts. We managed with a company of thirty one. Many of the subsidi­ary characters were cut out and there was a certain amount of necessary doubling. In real life Cyrano de Bergerac

PAGE 13

was only twenty one when he fought at Arras and thirty six when he died. In all the produc­tions which I have seen, Cyrano has always been played slightly oldcr and we followed this tradi­tion. One of our final problems was the ageing of the cast by fifteen years between the two final scenes. As there were only four minutes in which to accom­plish this, we had to make do with a quick changc of clothing and a slight whitening of the hair. In all cases the makc-up had to be light yet convincing, since the audience were, in somc cases only a couple of feet from the actors.

SET DESIGN Cyrano de Bergerac had five sets: Two interiof's:

(1) A thcatre, Act I Sccne I, Night (2) Ragueneau's Bakery, Act I scenc II, Early morning Three exteriof's:

(1) Roxane's house and balcony, Act I scene III, Evening. (2) The battle field at Arras, Act II scene I, Dawn. (3)The convent garden, Act II scene II, Late afternoon.

At thc Millcr Centre It Is possible to present plays on a proscc­nium stage or in the round. For Cyrano we did a combination of the two not using the seating usually on stage for 'in the round' production. This gave us two main areas. The upper stage area of24 ft x 19 ft and the lower arena in the auditorium area of 24 ft x 18 ft. Scating was on three sides forward of the pro­scenium arch. We had to keep the main action on the stage well down stage in order for It to be visible for the side audience. We lost thirty seats from the stage and five from the side were not used because of restricted views. To cover this loss we played three extra nights, thir­teen performances in all. Our set designer and scenic artist devised an ingenious ar­rangement of rostra both on stage and in the area normally used for 'in the round' produc­tions. On the rcvolve 3 ft high rostra was arranged to cover half the circle with steps at either end and the balcony centre. A traverse curtain was sct to cross the stc'1gc and by using the re ­volve in three positions only the visual effect was qUickly

AnlLlleUf' Stage April 1990

changed. A free standing painted 'curtain' iloat D .R. was used in scene one as a backing for the actor's small s tage and the chairs for the courtiers were set on the revolve stage L. and were revolved away at the end of scene one as the e ther s teps and food table ctc . were revolved In from behind the curtain stage R The two main p rob lems of s tag ­ing werc: Roxane's balcony and thc arrival and placing o f the

At the end of the scene Cyrano mounted the coach to rally the battle-weary Gascons, who were fighting off stage: U. R. Then In the last thirty seconds the stage revolved bringing the wall at the back (originally Roxane's bal ­cony but now disguised with nets nd ropes) to the front. This gave the appearance tha t the enemy were now the audience. Act II scene n, the convent, fif­teen years later, commenced

coach in the battle scene. To overcome the first problem the floor of the balcony was bu il t on the revolvc 3 ft a bove the s tage level. When it was moved In to position Roxane stood wel l above Cyrano, since the lower acting area was 3 ft below s tage level; aftcr this the traverse cu r ­tains were closed behind the rostra leaving a 6 ft openin g to reveal a french braced flat, Roxane's window. The floor area in thc arena, below the bal a ny, was only needed for this SCene and as extra space for the fenc­ing scenes in Act I, so a 6 fl x 2 fl ramp was used to join the left with the right rostra fOIW:-errd of the proscenium, fo rnliIlg a mosl inlportant link between the a r ­eas of action. The coach nccded a minimum run on area of5 ft x 9 ft and from its position off stage had to be swung into position quickly. This was achieved by Slriking part of the revolve rostra during the In terval, not to me n Uon a great deal of practice by two members of the cadets. The main house tab s wcre closed during the Interva l to cover the reselting of the ros tra. As the action co mrne ncl.:d the tabs were opcned a nd in the half light the Gascons s low ly carr1ed down Inlo thearena, boxes, bar­rels, b lan kets and set up camp.

forward of the main house tabs. which were closed at the end of the ballle to allow for a very qUick scene change on stage -Slriking cveryLhing moveable and setting the four low walls of the conven l and the a u tumn tree border ona second traverse. The nuns set the tapestry and the autumn leaves , which they carried on under their habits and proceeded to sweep up dur'illg their opening song. The curtain s were opened afier four minutes on Roxane a."ld De GUlehc's entrance. The falling leaves as stated in the text proved too much of a nrc hazard and had lo be cut.

REHEARSALS The play originally ran five and a

half hou rs. The Barblcan p:'j

duetton ran three and th:: quarters but it was necessary cut our production to two and hair hours with one ~ minute Interval. This was do by cutting eight minutes Ii the beginning of the play, p . to Cyrano's entrance; shortc:; ing the balcony scene and ' moon sequ ence : eliminating flu te player from the ba scene; and cutting Cyran:­lines by a t least a third. This 1A:

we condensed the play witho altering the balance of the pI Casting was completed s months before the perforrnantt and we had several prellmina..-: meetings to discuss characte Interpretation etc. before br ing three months in the s ur:­mer. Our rehearsal period \~ seven weeks , during which meet stx: hours every Sunda. and three evenings a week " two hours. The sword flghtin costume fi tting, lighting and sound s e tting were held as ex­tras. We were fortunate tha t 011:"

Cyra no was a keen fe ncer ane ablc to choreograph the two sword fights in Act I. During the fir t three weeks only the main charac ters were ealled and quite often duologues or small se­quences were rehearsed in isola­tion. We experienced four main prob­lems In rehearsing. First there was the obvious difficul ty of sustaining the interest of the s u pporting cast when blocking and rehe arsing company scenes - althou gh nobody ever com­plained . The seeond problem arose when transfening the production from the rehearsal studio to the theatre. We had to adjust the moves to fit Into doub le s pace we had had for r/>

PAGE 14

r~als, whlle at the same time tlng used to the ros tra and

scenery which we had not prac­:.Iced with. bur third problem

"as that because of expense we could only hire the four fenCing swords and six m u skets for three weeks, thus our rehearsal period with these props was cut to a minimum. Finally becau se of illness we had to ad d costume , lighting and sound 11 together three rehearsa1s before opening, rather than introduce each separately as we had originally planned .

LIGHTING Our lighting designer used a colour key for each scene. The theatre - amber. The bakery - gold on top of am­ber. The balcony - blue base wi th a steel blue In the leaf g; bos. The battle - lavender com bined with steel blue keyl1ghting. The convent - orange base light with white leaf gobos fading to blue base at night. Covering the two areas meant doubling our usual su pply of lanterns and many extras were reqUired because of the change of location for each scene. )20 lanterns were u sed made up of: 10 patt 243 1 kw fresnel - 12 prelude 28/40 . 14 Minnette /mlnlm 500 w fresnel -2 patl 823 650w profile. II Furse 500w fres nel - 4 "palt 813 650w profile. 28 patt 123 500w fresnel- 2 silhouette 30 profile 1 kw. 24 patt 23 500w profile - 4 pa tt 264 I kw profile. 2 patt 23N 500w narrow profile - 5 3 way eye floods ,2 patt 60.

A Tempus M.24 memory desk with 48 dimmers was used and each channel was nearly fully loaded. Twenty three profiles had leafy or break-u p gobos in them. The lighting in all s cenes was soft and unobtrusive. Photo floods with red gells were used on the eye, to give the effect of fire shells exploding off s tage, while four theatrical flashes were used in the final ba ttle sequence as the stage revolved at the end of the scene. One of these was let off before the be­ginning ofAct Il behind the main house curtains. This gave an effec t of early morning mist.

COSTUME It Is fortunate that the MUler Centre has an extensive theatri ­cal wardrobe from which we

"'TlO.teur Stage April 1990

were able lo su pply clothes fo r most of the courtiers, writer s and citizens. Some new cos ­tumes were made for Roxane and De Guiche and these have now been added to existing stocks In the wardrobe. Our main problem was clothing the Gascons but we were able to h ire from The Royal Shakespeare Company lhe costumes used by the Gascons in their 1983 Bar­bican production. We also bor­rowed some addlUonal hoots for our courtiers. For the mai n characters we hIred real hair wigs. The Gascons wore their own hair short for the battle scenes and we were able to supply otherwigs from our own wardrobe. A major expense was

cakes given by Cyrano to Roxane's chaperone were false except for one chocolate eclair eaten on stage. In Act II scene I, the battle scene, Roxane and Rageuneau arrive with a carriage fu ll of food su p­posedly hidden from the Span­Ish army. 'Ibis list was exten­sive , so we cut the references to Individual Items and m adc up small packages for each Gas­con. These consisted of bread. cheese, sausages and a n a pple. The food was put into white nap­kins for each man and bidden in the carnage cu shions. All the food was fresh n igh tly and ea ten on stage by the 'starving' sol­diers. The tapestry in A t II scene 11

hiring words, armour for De Gulche and muskets tha t fi red blanks.

PROPS On fi rst slght the props In Cyr ­ano could seem Inslgnlficc n t There are only a few bu t lhey can prove dilllcu it. The main prob­lem Is Lheamount offood needed throughout the playl In Act I scene I we gave the food sellers baskets which were se­cured round their necks with straps, rather like usherettes in a cinema or theatre, fr om which they 'sold' drink, frui t and bis­cuits. The baskets were replen­Is hed nigh tly, but orne of the fruit was arLificlal to save cost. In Act I scene n the cooks a t Ragueneau's bakery have to bring In a series of extravagen t creations in pastry, bread, fruit and meat. We modified the crea­tions and our props mt tress made five large elaborate dishes of macaroni which she deco­rated and kept In the deep freeze unti l they were needed each night. The almond tarts de­voured by the poets were made dally of sponge mixture and the

was difficult to produce since it was placed so close to the audl­en in the arena area. A smaIl frame was made on to which canvas was stretched. Heavy woven cloth was stuck on both sides while lengths ofwool were threaded through and left hang­Ing a s if it was unfinished . Mate­ria l was rolled up at one end to

give the impression of the fiftecn years work . The most difficult item was RClxane 's coach. I have seen some amateu r productions played wi thout the carnage but the scene loses a grea t deal ifitis omitted. We managed to hire a four wheel cania ge from a local farmer who u ses it In the sum­mer fo r weddings. We slightly converted the coach by covering the hood with scenic cloth to hide Roxane on her entrance and 'muddlng up' the wheels with scenic paint. Each night there was an appreciative gasp fro m the a udience.

SOUND Most of the sound In the produc­tion is not problematic - birds, a church clock e tc. - except for Act

11 scene I. This requires bugles, cannon, explosions and gun fire, creating a whole ba ttle se· quenceoffstage terminating ln a charge. A backing tape was made for the whole scene by ou r sound engineer from records and compact d iscs . This was used with a live caslo keyboard and digital sampler, so that the sound could be synchronized with the action on the stage; especially a t the end of the scene when the Ga scons fired towards the audience and 'fire' was re­turned from the auditoriu m speak rs. We u sed s ix speakers in all , two up s tage right and left for the far off bugle sounds and approac hing cannon In the battle , two in the lower a udito­rium and two at the back of lhe auditorium. It was practlcally impossible to get the sound lev­els right for everyone in the audience at the same time. If we had reduced the level for part of the battle sequence, the bac k of the thea tre would not have heard the recording a t all. I am afraid, the refo re, the actors' words In the final momenls of the scene were undoubtedly lost. l. only hope that the audi­ence were so Immersed In the emotion of the moment that they felt a part of the action. In the middle of a battle field it would be difficult to hearl To open and close the play, link the scenes and the battle sequence, origi­nal music was wrttten for the production , recorded and played through the appropriate speakers.

FINAL NOTE Cyrano's nose is, perhaps , one of the most important Items In the production. It must be large, bulbous, even ridiculous, but above all believable and com­fortable for the actor to wear. Our Cyrano posed as a model for the Make-Up Centre at South Kensington. A cast was made of his nose, then a replica. After that, Cyrano's nose was mod­elled and a plaster mould made of that. Two noses were madc from this which our actor used through out the run. His nose fitted him like a glove and the first time he walked onto the stage in fuJI costume we did not recognise him. He was a hero 'from the story books' and one wondered why Roxane could nol have fallen In love with him rather than Christianl D

PAGE 15