<strong>Southbank Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company<br></strong>After beg scuppered by a snap lockdown 2021, Gay’s highly anticipated take on Cyrano turns out to have been worth wag for
Contents:
- CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY SH THIS BOLD, QUEER REIMAGG
- VIRGIA GAY ON THE CHALLENGE OF QUEERG CYRANO: ‘I DON’T WANT A TRAGEDY RIGHT NOW’
- HELLISH: COVID-19 AND A BROKEN HEART FUEL VIRGIA GAY’S NEW-LOOK CYRANO
- 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’
- ANALYSISVIRGIA GAY'S CYRANO ULDN'T BE STOPPED BY TWO LOCKDOWNS AND HAS A MSAGE FOR OUR TIM
- CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY SH THIS BOLD, SURPRISG REIMAGG | ATRALIAN THEATRE
CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY SH THIS BOLD, QUEER REIMAGG
* virginia gay cyrano review *
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.
VIRGIA GAY ON THE CHALLENGE OF QUEERG CYRANO: ‘I DON’T WANT A TRAGEDY RIGHT NOW’
Famoly, distrsgly, Virgia Gay's openg night was ncelled three hours before the cy went back to lockdown for the sixth time. But her new show is out, and says somethg about our tim, wr Virgia Trli. * virginia gay cyrano review *
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.
HELLISH: COVID-19 AND A BROKEN HEART FUEL VIRGIA GAY’S NEW-LOOK CYRANO
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. In se, like me, you haven't read the origal play, here is a summary adapted om Wikipedia: (play) This is a very cut-down acunt of Cyrano Bergerac, the… * virginia gay cyrano review *
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.
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.
CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY’S MT-SEE BOUNDARY PHG CELEBRATN OF LOVE
“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.
”Virgia Gay on playg Cyrano: ‘When you do whout a nose, be abundantly clear that this is the most tertg person on stage. I won’t be a part of a story that says, ‘kill your gays’.
VIRGIA GAY’S CYRANO IS A TONIC FOR MORN TIM
” 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. “The first three acts of Cyrano are prototypil rom-, ” Gay says.
VIRGIA GAY SHAR WHY SHE FELT PELLED TO MAKE ‘CYRANO’
“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.
ANALYSISVIRGIA GAY'S CYRANO ULDN'T BE STOPPED BY TWO LOCKDOWNS AND HAS A MSAGE FOR OUR TIM
Virgia Gay giv a joyo performance this genr-flipped retellg of Edmond Rostand’s lerary classicWe’ve all been stuck the rner of a party tryg to extrite ourselv om someone who is at great pas to tell how brilliant they are whout prentg evince to back up.
CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY SH THIS BOLD, SURPRISG REIMAGG | ATRALIAN THEATRE
Fronted by abundantly charismatic star Virgia Gay – so fabulo as Calamy Jane – she steps to the genr-swapped role of the poetic soldier loosely based on a real-life Liberte. Gay’s Cyrano simply don’t monstrate the goln tongue we need om a hero whose words are mightier than her sword.
Gay also monstrat a cur distert the origal text’s tragiic drama. This Cyrano feels a ltle too boiled to the bone, right down to Jo Brise’s overly simple backstage settg, labourg the vaguely realised ia that Gay/Cyrano is wrg her sp on the story as we watch unfold. It’s all so on the nose – even if Gay wisely chews any Nile Kidman a-la The Hours prosthetic enhancement, unlike Steve Mart and Gérard Depardi, who went all- their big screen pictns of Cyrano.
Where Dklage ftly drew on his lived experience of people’s reactns to dwarfism as a smart stand- for the show’s nose-s, there’s ltle Gay’s take that grappl wh the limatn of genr nstcts. Even Gay stggl to she a nfed work that ially sneers at mil theatre before slidg to a chey closg number.