Virgia Gay - Q+A

Contents:

• VIRGIA GAY ON THE CHALLENGE OF QUEERG CYRANO: ‘I DON’T WANT A TRAGEDY RIGHT NOW’
• CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY SH THIS BOLD, QUEER REIMAGG
• HELLISH: COVID-19 AND A BROKEN HEART FUEL VIRGIA GAY’S NEW-LOOK CYRANO
• MTC PRENTS CYRANO, A GENR-FLIPPED MIL ADAPTATN BY VIRGIA GAY
• ‘SHE WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT’: ACTOR VIRGIA GAY ON HER MOTHER’S VALUABLE ADVICE
• CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY’S MT-SEE BOUNDARY PHG CELEBRATN OF LOVE
• VIRGIA GAY
• ANALYSISVIRGIA GAY'S CYRANO ULDN'T BE STOPPED BY TWO LOCKDOWNS AND HAS A MSAGE FOR OUR TIM
• VIRGIA GAY’S CYRANO IS A TONIC FOR MORN TIM

VIRGIA GAY ON THE CHALLENGE OF QUEERG CYRANO: ‘I DON’T WANT A TRAGEDY RIGHT NOW’

It’s also somethg Virgia Gay has spas, an actor who shot to natnal fame televisn shows such as All Sats and Wners & Losers, but whose pth of talent is bt experienced live on stage. “When you do whout a nose, ” Gay explas, “ be abundantly clear that this is the most tertg person on stage, but they have cid that, for some reason, they are not worthy of love” urse, when you st a woman the role, that “some reason” tak on a distctly queer ronance. Stg the dience for the first half of the play, Gay thought: “I have to play this role.

CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY SH THIS BOLD, QUEER REIMAGG

”Virgia Gay on playg Cyrano: ‘When you do whout a nose, be abundantly clear that this is the most tertg person on stage. ” Which is not to say that gay characters n’t partake the tharsis that om high tragedy; Gay simply don’t thk that’s what dienc want the midst of a global crisis. ” So Gay did, surg every adaptatn (cludg unofficial film versns such as Roxanne and The Tth About Cats and Dogs) for the aspects of the story she wanted to foreground.

“If you have a femist and a queer woman wrg this story, and wrg about and for a Roxane who is gasl, tfished and manipulated by another woman, ” Gay extrapolat, “then be very difficult” answer was to bolster and empower the role of Roxane, so that she be a te equal to Cyrano, able to parry and thst the war of ws. And Melbourne’s tentative, almost reticent return to the theatre is echoed the stcture of Gay’s adaptatn: “Six actors return to the theatre and try to remember how to put on a show, bate the rponsibili of tellg this story.

HELLISH: COVID-19 AND A BROKEN HEART FUEL VIRGIA GAY’S NEW-LOOK CYRANO

”Gay wrote her Cyrano while sufferg om Covid Los Angel – “a tly rotten 14 days of tense pa” – and the rult is a work fed wh the sensatn of spend longg, but also of hope fulfilled.

Melbourne Theatre Company’s queered versn of this classic, wrten by and starrg the charismatic Virgia Gay (Calamy Jane), was set to premiere 2021, but was scuppered by a snap lockdown announced jt three hours before openg night. This eratn of Cyrano is built brick by brick real time by a Greek chos of unnamed supportg characters (Holly At, Milo Hartill and Rob Goldsworthy), who assist Gay’s Cyrano cidg how she wants to realise her own versn of events. Gay’s genr-flipped remake clus no such physil tra, but ’s a strange cisn to keep referenc to – one monologue has her riffg madly on big nose jok.

The play remas a edy of errors but, aga wh Gay’s ntemporary polics, more agency is given to the characters that were tradnally ed as props. But due to the fluctuatns language and non-era-specific stumg (cludg athleisurewear and roller skat for Roxanne’s grand entrance), n be nfg knowg exactly when this play is supposed to be set – has a morn spir, but seems to go back and forth Jabbour as Yan and Gay as Cyrano. This bizarre choice is probably the productn’s biggt misstep, but do build some rapport wh the past newsletter promotnafter newsletter promotnGay’s Cyrano is more rom than tragedy, buildg up to a sequence which the protagonist vis her way to apologise, and then get the girl.

MTC PRENTS CYRANO, A GENR-FLIPPED MIL ADAPTATN BY VIRGIA GAY

When everythg went south, Virgia Gay had already been Los Angel for a few years, tryg out managers, gog to stgs, dog those rounds. ” Her only pann was her iend’s shih tzu terrier, Gidget, who Gay says serv a -wrg cred on the new MTC productn of Cyrano. Virgia Gay and Tuuli Narkle play Cyrano and Roxanne the MTC’s productn of Gay’s genr-flipped take on the legendary Chris HopksBee was this scene of utter disnnectn that gave seed to Gay’s visn for a new take on Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play, Cyrano Bergerac – about a tragic hero who nobly lends his poetic talent to help a iend w over their mutual love ’s Cyrano – whom she has genr-flipped to a gay woman – don’t have the enormo nose that blights the nfince of the origal protagonist.

”Virgia Gay durg rehearsals for Charlie KrossBack then, Gay ma herself the butt of her jok. “The thgs that are takg up my md right now is how we metabolise trma, ” Gay says.

‘SHE WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT’: ACTOR VIRGIA GAY ON HER MOTHER’S VALUABLE ADVICE

”Gay, who’s 39 now, says her 30s have been glor but revisg her old self-beliefs, through the mouths of other actors, has been unfortable. ”Virgia Gay her much-loved take on Calamy John McRaeWhen we meet, the six-strong st is nng through the mil numbers, wrten by Gay and mil director Xani Kolac. Gay’s Cyrano has a happy endg and is a “joy bomb”, much the manner of her last major Atralian outg 2018, as the tular Calamy out of 112 days of lockdown last year, the entire script sound like a love letter to life, says Tuuli Narkle, who plays Cyrano’s love tert, Roxanne.

”The problem that Gay had when nsirg genr-flippg Cyrano was that the send half of the origal play, “everyone go off to war – bee they’re French – and Roxanne be eher a nun or a whore”.

CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY’S MT-SEE BOUNDARY PHG CELEBRATN OF LOVE

Virgia GayIt was important to Gay that Roxanne be played by a woman of lour orr to nont Cyrano’s self-absorptn his own tragedy, and that Roxanne would nstantly challenge Cyrano’s ethics. “When society chang, those rol have to shift to accurately engage wh that change, ” says Gay.

Gay’s Cyrano is self-aware theatre, wh the characters queryg each other’s motiv.

Dpe rehearsals now swchg to Zoom, Gay is nfint that the fished productn will provi the sense of nnectn that others have been cravg as much as her. Loadg“One of the thgs I’ve been thkg about is the move away om isolatn – which kept safe, but kept lonely – to the ms of livg aga, ” Gay says.

VIRGIA GAY

Virgia Gay ups the ante wh a genr-flipped, mic-filled take on Cyrano wh joy, w and achg romance, Cyrano will make s world premiere on Thursday 5 Augt at Southbank Theatre.

Followg the wild succs of Calamy Jane, Gay giv a lightfully self-aware theatril love letter for our tim, eely adapted om Edmond Rostand’s lerary classic. Directed by Sarah Goos (Home, I’m Darlg), the productn is wrten by and starrg Virgia Gay (Vivid Whe), alongsi Holly At (Miss Fisher & The Crypt of Tears), Rob Goldsworthy (This Much Is Te), Milo Hartill (Guerilla Sabbath), Cl Jabbour (En) and Tuuli Narkle (Sunshe Super Girl).

ANALYSISVIRGIA GAY'S CYRANO ULDN'T BE STOPPED BY TWO LOCKDOWNS AND HAS A MSAGE FOR OUR TIM

Her theatre creds clu Vivid Whe, Mnie & Liraz, The Beast and On The Productn of Monsters (Melbourne Theatre Company); and Gaybi(Darlghurst Theatre Company); Calamy Jane (One Eyed Man Productns); The Wharf Revue(Sydney Theatre Company); Ctnary Tal For Children (Arena); High Society (Hay Theatre); Mame (Neglected Mils); The Producers, Jerry’s Girls (The Productn Company) and La Clique (Famo Spiegeltent – Leicter Square). Script velopment of Cyrano by Virgia Gay (after Edmond Rostand) has been assisted by the Atralian Government through the Atralia Council for the Arts, Sydney Ftival and the NSW Government through Create NSW and the Cy of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants. Virgia Gay livers a joyful, genr-flipped retellg of Cyrano Bergerac.

VIRGIA GAY’S CYRANO IS A TONIC FOR MORN TIM

19pmThis wrap of shows around Melbourne clus Virgia Gay’s imagative adaptatn of a classic, a double bill of morn Amerin opera, an imaged enunter between Mart Luther Kg Jr.

THEATRECyrano ★★½Virgia Gay after Edmond Rostand, MTC, until October 29Awash wh low edy and the irreprsible spir of amatr theatre, Virgia Gay’s ee adaptatn of Cyrano Bergerac will make you lgh and snort and snigger, even as stumbl at transfigurg the ridiculo to the Narkle and Virgia Gay the Melbourne Theatre Company productn of Jeff BbyOn paper, the show is a hot ticket. No one who saw Gay Calamy Jane uld doubt her geni for edy, and there was every reason to thk she’d brg the same quick-off-the-draw w, heightened timacy, and razor-sharp timg to Rostand’s unorthodox hero.

Unfortunately, Gay isn’t as seasoned a wrer as she is a performer, and while you will, most certaly, lgh at this adaptatn – Gay is the kd of actor who uld make the phone book funny – you may sometim wonr whether you trouble don’t lie queerg Cyrano or reversg the character’s genr, but the lip-service Gay’s script pays to poetry. Here, there is an almost perverse aversn to the magic of words – a bumblg meta-theatril ame tak over; high rhetoric is chewed favour of humour that plays to the lowt mon are patiently explaed by Cyrano (Gay) and her merry chos of am-dram clowns (Milo Hartill, Rob Goldsworthy and Holly At), and they’re sometim enacted as if they were a gdgg afterthought, a way that feels patronisg to dienc and disrpectful to the artistry of the of which is to ny the ensemble creat lively and divertg moments, om jnty chos numbers to the silly ventriloquism of Cyrano woog on behalf of Cl Jabbour’s ultimate himbo, although you’ll have to wa through dick jok, and other forlorn attempts at w, to get to them. A scene om Cyrano at Melbourne Theatre Jeff BbyIt’s a shame, too, for anyone (myself clud) who would leap at the chance to see Gay perform any of Rostand’s sweepg speech the plat translatn.