Cyrano review – Virgia Gay sh this bold, queer reimagg | Atralian theatre | The Guardian

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
• ANALYSISVIRGIA GAY'S CYRANO ULDN'T BE STOPPED BY TWO LOCKDOWNS AND HAS A MSAGE FOR OUR TIM
• CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY’S MT-SEE BOUNDARY PHG CELEBRATN OF LOVE
• VIRGIA GAY’S CYRANO IS A TONIC FOR MORN TIM
• VIRGIA GAY SHAR WHY SHE FELT PELLED TO MAKE ‘CYRANO’

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. ” 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.

CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY SH THIS BOLD, QUEER REIMAGG

“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.

”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.

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

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.

There have been many adaptatns of the late 19th century play, Cyrano Bergerac, cludg opera and many film versns But Virgia Gay has done somethg special. There had been one drs rehearsal held the afternoon before we saw and Gay, who, as well as havg wrten the piece plays the role of Cyrano, warned that thgs might go wrong.

This me out clearly as what the play is about — not feelg worthy of beg loved by anyone, which is apparently how a young gay person n feel growg up a heterosexual world. Another important difference om the origal Cyrano is that Roxane is much stronger and far more pennt than her 19th century versn — Gay’s Roxane is a woman of lour (Tuuli Narkle who plays Roxane is of Aborigal scent) and universy ted — she is an tellectual match to 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.

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

”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”. 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.

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

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.

I still mata that the day I terviewed the director of the Melbourne Theatre Company, Virgia Lovett, about the heart-breakg lockdown ncellatn of actor, sger, edian and wrer Virgia Gay's play Cyrano, was the only time all rad history when a Virgia terviewed a Virgia about another me wrong.

VIRGIA GAY’S CYRANO IS A TONIC FOR MORN TIM

Fd another nversatn is memorable for me for another reason, however: wrten lock-down as a love letter to hope, sire, and the power of language to break open hearts, Gay wanted this play to wele weary Melburnians back to the theatre as the cy fally re-opened.

Virgia Gay flips Cyrano's genr, and as she did wh her award-wng Calamy Jane, she fds the queer and the wonrful a love story that swirls the origal text to a raspberry ripple of ntemporary language, sweet and sharp and om the theatre tell me that crowds are very slowly returng to the natn's doriums, but they are not packg the theatr even as our stag are crowd wh some of the bt productns of a .

VIRGIA GAY SHAR WHY SHE FELT PELLED TO MAKE ‘CYRANO’

I kept thkg of another edian, one jt as lerate and jt as playful as Gay, who was also drawn to the btersweet folly of nose a jokeUS edian Steve Mart (who once wrote a play about Pisso and Este chattg a bar about art and science) rewrote the text for his film Roxanne, playg the embattled, wty but nasally overburned protagonist himself. "Last year, Virgia Gay uldn't, but this time, she n, and like Mart, Gay fds her play the longg and the vulnerabily that moment of hhed bravery that we all mt take if we are gog to step to the moment and ask for the love that we want, to clare ourselv and take the nsequenc.