Preface to Frank Langella's Cyrano
Copyright 1999 by Frank Langella

Preface

To attempt CYRANO DE BERGERAC with a cast of a dozen people 
presents a host of traps -- and I fell into about all of them. Some I pulled 
myself out of, and others swallowed me alive.

In this preface, I will try to describe to future pioneers the territory as I 
discovered it. After you have charted my course, you must chart your own 
and live with the consequences.

Consequences, by the way, I still feel are well worth risking. And I encourage 
anyone who wishes to test his mettle to take the trip.

As an actor I've played Cyrano twice before, in 1971 and 1980, at the 
Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachussettes. Both productions were 
essentially the same -- huge cast, including hundreds of soldiers and hordes 
of nuns, grand costumes, quaint music; and both were very long.

Both were immensely successful with audiences and critics, and given the 
limited budgets and time constraints at Williamstown, all-out spectacles.

A number of years ago, it began to occur to me that this play, so universally 
loved, might be very effective as a chamber piece. My reasons were two-fold. 
Most of us have known the pain of unrequited love, and many people ruin their 
lives holding out for an ideal beyond them, when true happiness is right under 
their noses, so to speak.

What if all the pomp and ceremony were stripped away? The extraneous 
characters gone? All sense of period eliminated? Wouldn't a timeless love story 
remain? A tragic triangle for all time -- and would it not perhaps be more tragic 
viewed in the simplest of settings, free from the frills and feathers of its day?

Secondly, I saw it as a production one could do anywhere -- at any theatre 
with a limited budget, and as a show easy to travel. And, of course, the character 
of Cyrano himself is a great ride for any actor. I had expressed the idea to 
Todd Haimes of the Roundabout Theatre one year. He said, "Do it". So, I 
sat down and began to adapt my favorite translation, the Brian Hooker.

As I began, I realized I had been editing the play in my head for years -- 
for the form it now exists in took shape fairly quickly. At first I cut too much, 
then over-restored, then over-cut again. I will not recount here the dozens of 
revisions I created and discarded over the year or even the dozens of 
changes made during rehearsals and a desperately needed long preview in New York. 

The version contained herein is the one we played at the Roundabout 
and it is meant to convey the heart and soul of Cyrano's story. It was 
arrived at, at no little cost to a patient and courageous group of actors 
who had to survive my constant changes as adapter and director; as 
well as another actor playing Cyrano during a large portion of rehearsal, 
while I stumbled through those changes. 

I can best serve the next adventurer by trying to describe some of the 
mistakes I made.

First the physical production. It had been my original intention to do as 
bare-bones a production as possible. A unit set of various levels easily 
workable as a theatre hall, or a camp, or a garden, etc. I also envisioned 
costumes of utmost simplicity -- clean lines, soft easy flow for the women; 
hard, strong, lean for the men -- but somewhere in the early stages, I veered 
away from that concept and, again with the constant devotion of my designers, 
began to create an ersatz period look that resulted in a mock-romantic style, 
neither spectacle, nor elegant simplicity -- but rather a sense of a watered 
down period piece. I would urge future productions to keep it extremely simple. 
Bare-bones set and costumes. No hint of any era. Also make your scene changes 
swift and simple -- allow the characters to carry you from one scene to the next -- 
not the stagehands. 

The music too was a demon. I tried 40's love songs, Duke Ellington jazz and 
some over-sentimental classical. All of it unsuccessful. I tend to think little or 
no music would best serve this version. 

Cyrano removed from the era in which he was written can seem, if the actor 
and the production are not vigilant, like an over-florid animated Hallmark Card. 
Stripped of the standards and mores of his day, his pain and longing can look 
dangerously silly. It's only in the depth of feeling and honesty of performing 
that a sense of semi-classical pretentiousness can be avoided. 

On the plus side, in the acting, I encouraged a total lack of what I had come 
to regard as "that sound" -- a sort of fake semi-classical acting noise that passes 
for seriousness of intent -- nor did I want the modern, moment to moment, 
sub-realism that results in actors sounding so with it as to be past it. The 
company worked tirelessly and exhaustively toward that end -- and suffered 
through endless variations of that theme; at various times performing at 
breathless speed, in the dark, improvising, and -- at one glorious afternoon 
rehearsal -- in Spanish. Efforts were made to break away from a traditional 
grandiose attitude toward this material, and play the characters with a full-out 
honesty, truth, and simplicity -- not losing their passion or power. 

Roxane is best served in this version as a young woman who learns about 
herself as the play progresses. At first in love with love and Christian's beauty, 
then the realization of her shallowness and her eagerness to mature, and finally, 
in her loss, a quiet acceptance culminating in a genuine rage at her betrayal.

Christian is not a dolt -- but an honest, upright, honorable man -- full of real love 
and with a sweet understanding of his shortcomings -- just because he can't talk 
to a woman doesn't mean in all other respects he isn't a fine and decent man who 
rises to great nobility when he learns the truth and forces Cyrano to tell Roxane. 

And so on -- Marguerite is a fine woman, not a dithering matron. Le Bret, a good 
friend -- solid and true, Ragueneau, a gentle sometime poet. DeGuiche, not a 
boring stuffed shirt, but a shrewd and intelligent politician. And Lise is here conceived 
as a young woman deeply in love with Cyrano -- silent throughout, hoping that one 
day he will turn to see, that while he has been languishing over his own unrequited 
love -- she has been there always, hoping he will see her, which he never does. 

And Cyrano is himself not altogether a noble character, but fearful and cowardly 
and using his nose as the reason he will not act upon his true desires -- as many 
people often use anything to keep from acting on their dreams. To that point, 
I would suggest the actor playing Cyrano be a relatively young man, since part 
of Cyrano's self-deception should come from his youth and inexperience. 

It is then in this version, a small village of people -- all interconnected and 
interdependent -- and the deeply intimate unfolding of a tragedy, of which 
they are all aware that should hold the audience -- not spectacle. Taking 
Cyrano out of his era is dangerous -- but playing this version with total conviction 
and honest intentions is ultimately rewarding. It is often said that all the characters 
are stick figures, there to serve Cyrano's shining star. This version, by its very 
simplicity, avoids that cliche. Each of the characters is a clear and specific individual 
aware of and party to Cyrano's story, and they become rewarding to play. 

Finally, my production, it could be said charitably, was a noble failure. The New York 
critics, with a few exceptions, were dismissive and at times vicious in their 
denouncement of me and my concept. Lack of approval cannot stop you. 
Do what you want to do. Ignore my advice here even, and follow your instinct. 

Risk this Cyrano. It is, I hope, full of his soul and yearning and it was, 
for my soul, a rewarding and thrilling journey -- one I envy you, should you 
decide to go for it. 
                                                FL