Royal Shakespeare Company CYRANO DE BERGERAC Sets West End Transfer; Adrian Lester To Star

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of CYRANO DE BERGERAC will transfer to the West End, playing the Noël Coward Theatre following its run in Stratford-upon-Avon. The production is presented by Wessex Grove and Gavin Kalin Productions in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Adrian Lester will reprise his role as Cyrano de Bergerac, with Susannah Fielding returning as Roxane. The new version of Edmond Rostand’s play is co-adapted and directed by Simon Evans, with Debris Stevenson collaborating on the adaptation. Additional casting has yet to be announced.

Lester said, “Simon Evans and I have been working on this project for years, well before the brilliant and incredibly supportive RSC collaborated with us to make it happen. I am so happy to be stepping back into the role of Cyrano in order to bring this playful and poignant production to more audiences in the West End.” He added that the adaptation “is packed with the joyful lyricism of Simon and the amazing Debris Stevenson, whose poetry completely reinvented our approach to this classic.”

Evans and Stevenson said in a joint statement, “Cyrano is a play about the courage it takes to say what you mean, plainly and bravely. Unashamedly funny and deeply moving in equal measure, we hope it’s an exploration of the absurd mess of human longing, a celebration of poetry that lives in the body, and an invitation for audiences to laugh, cry, and open their hearts.”

The production reimagines Rostand’s story of Cyrano, a poet and soldier whose brilliance and wit mask deep insecurity, particularly in matters of love. Unable to declare his feelings to Roxane, Cyrano lends his words to the handsome but inarticulate Christian, setting in motion a story shaped by longing, deception, and sacrifice.

The creative team includes set and Costume Designer Grace Smart, lighting designer Joshie Harriette, composer Alex Baranowski, sound designer Donato Wharton, movement director Sarita Piotrowski, fight and intimacy director Bethan Clark, dramaturg Rebecca Latham for the RSC, and casting director Matthew Dewsbury CDG.

Tickets for the West End engagement will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, February 6. The production will play from June 13 through September 5 at the Noël Coward Theatre.