French fancy
When Communicado Theatre Company first romped onstage with their unique slant on Cyrano De Bergerac, Edmond llostand’s heartbreaking epic about the swashbuckling poet with the outsize conk, it was the runaway success of 1992’s Edinburgh Fringe. Edwin Morgan’s rich, rhyming Scots translation - married to director Gerry Mulgrew’s brand of stylistic brio, and played by a heroic ensemble cast - couldn’t help but charm audiences. Staging it not long after the cast-of- thousands film version starring Gerard Depardieu probably helped too; and equally the show’s forthcoming revival, a co-production with Edinburgh’s lloyal lyceum company, should get the newly refurbished theatre off to a flying start - especially as Mulgrew remains undaunted by the prospect of a more formal setting.
‘Even though we’re on a bigger stage this time, we decided we weren’t going to be seduced by it or to try and make things bigger,’ he says. ‘That way things would only end up out of our control, which would go against the spirit of working as an ensemble.’ Indeed, the entire original company is in place, bar one (Fiona Bell replaces Sandy Mcnade as Roxane), giving the play an authentically Gallic troubadourian feel. Hell, even the original nose is back, albeit re- modelled and re-tweaked into shape
King conk: ‘I’om Mannlon leads the cast as Cyrano
by Grant Mason, who was not only responsible for its first run, but also for the horrific dead-baby-crawling- on-the-ceiling bad-trip scenario in the film of Trainspotting.
“the real difference this time’, according to Mulgrew, ‘is that because we’ve experienced the play already, we can now be more mature about re-examining the themes in it, and to strengthen the relationships and interaction through the playing of it.’ Just to test themselves, they’ve even reinstated a scene that was cut from their previous production. ‘What we’re trying to do is put on an epic with eleven people, which is about 30 less than we need,’ boasts Mulgrew. ‘It’s impossible odds, very much in the spirit of Cyrano himself. like if he’s swordfighting, he wouldn’t be interested in fighting anything less than 100 men at once. We’re like that too.’ (Neil Cooper)
Cyrano De Bergerac, Royal Lyceum,
. Edinburgh, Fri 11 act-Sat 2 Nov.
Brighton Theatre Events present Louise Rennison’s
Sex—A Girl’s Survival Kit
Fri 4 & Sat 5 Oct 0 7.30pm 0 £6.00/£4.00 “Unmissable” Time Out
Tripod Theatre Company present An Evening Of LIqUId & Laughs
With support from Ceilidh Minogue
Fri 11& Sat 12 Oct 0 £5.00/£4.00 (includes a free glass of wine)
Evening starts at 8.00pm Show starts at 8.30pm
The "Chile, 30 Midland Street ' 0141 221 9136 the ticket Centre, Candlcnggs ° 0141 227 5511
PREVIEW THEATRE
ll Elfin Eiflflllllfl
"HIE
Thu 24 3 Nov ice: 0141227 5511
brochure: 0141 1511
/., "' ’J
y I suster-pantone. Thu 24 - SUN,,27 a. h
V, '25." “' ‘ “ft ' BOX orifice; I 3173;: ’
(So-Commissioned by The National Review of Live Art "7'
a fearless
and naked confrontation“ with injustice‘
The List 4-17 Oct 1996 55