<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:
- 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
- VIRGIA GAY SHAR WHY SHE FELT PELLED TO MAKE ‘CYRANO’
- VIRGIA GAY’S CYRANO IS A TONIC FOR MORN TIM
- ANALYSISVIRGIA GAY'S CYRANO ULDN'T BE STOPPED BY TWO LOCKDOWNS AND HAS A MSAGE FOR OUR TIM
- VIRGIA GAY
- ACTOR VIRGIA GAY
VIRGIA GAY ON THE CHALLENGE OF QUEERG CYRANO: ‘I DON’T WANT A TRAGEDY RIGHT NOW’
* virginia gay cyrano *
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. ”Virgia Gay on playg Cyrano: ‘When you do whout a nose, be abundantly clear that this is the most tertg person on stage.
CYRANO REVIEW – VIRGIA GAY SH THIS BOLD, QUEER REIMAGG
Virgia Gay serv up a joyo, genr-flipped retellg of Cyrano Bergerac. Packed wh mic, w and achg romance. * virginia gay cyrano *
” 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. ”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.
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 *
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.
VIRGIA GAY SHAR WHY SHE FELT PELLED TO MAKE ‘CYRANO’
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 *
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. When everythg went south, Virgia Gay had already been Los Angel for a few years, tryg out managers, gog to stgs, dog those rounds.
VIRGIA GAY’S CYRANO IS A TONIC FOR MORN TIM
” 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. ”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.
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 GAY
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. Actor and wrer Virgia Gay will take to the stage this week to prent her acclaimed versn of the classic story of Cyrano Bererac, the man wh an enormo nose who helps his iend Christian fd the right words to ga the heart of the betiful Roxanne. Gay’s updated take on the tale of the famo romantic se the part genr flipped as she be the secret wordsmh.
ACTOR VIRGIA GAY
Graeme Watson ught up wh Virgia Gay ahead of the play’s openg night at Black Swan State Theatre Company to chat about why she felt pelled to create a new and very different versn of Edmond Rostand’s play om 1897. I feel like women’s bodi are judged tenfold more than for men, but maybe ls for gay men.