Review: CYRANO DE BERGERAC at KCRep

James Chen and Christopher Rivas in KC Rep's "Cyrano". Photo by Cory Weaver

The 60th season of the KC Rep began last night with the debut of Cyrano de Bergerac in a new production by Martin Crimp. It was with some nervous anticipation that this reviewer sat down to Friday night’s performance: the Edmond Rostand classic has always been a personal favorite and Bergerac himself something of an iconoclastic role model. It is a story that has no doubt resonated with many a young outsider over the years, and thus no surprise that many have tried their hand at reinterpreting it…with varying levels of success. 

The play is set in an odd sort of hybrid of 17th-century France and modern times, with the sensibilities and fashion sense of the latter laid over the social structures and political systems of the former. The blending is overall passible, though far from seamless, and one may hear the tires skidding from time to time. Much is made of the fact that the cast has been made more diverse bringing in people of different ethnicities, LGBT identities, etc. Honestly this neither detracted from nor added to the production, though it was nice to see an active move toward increased representation. The decision to do the whole thing in rhyming couplets may certainly be said to fall into the spirit of Cyrano et al, men and women who lived and died for poetry, but it does occasionally grate somewhat. Two and a half hours of rhyme is rather a lot.

But these are minor considerations, and to fully discuss the play we must turn to the elephant in the room, or rather the trunk. At some point someone decided that this production would feature a nose-less Cyrano—that is to say, one with a perfectly ordinary proboscis. Given the sheer importance to the character—it is the very lightning rod that makes him who he is—the decision is rather puzzling. De-nosing Cyrano (how Fruedian!) frankly puts the whole character out of joint. What is more, James Chen, who plays Cyrano, is by any reasonable measure a conventionally handsome young man, and no attempt is made to disguise this fact. To see him lamenting his ugliness and declaring no woman would desire the likes of him tends to take one out of the story. Indeed, were this reviewer feeling particularly puckish, they may accuse the production of appropriating Ugly People Culture. Ah, but no…that’s too far even for me. In the performance as in the story itself, Cyrano’s words find themselves coming out of Christian’s mouth (one can hope that Msr. de Bergerac would have seen the joke). 

Understand, no fault lies with the performers themselves. Chen’s Cyrano is a dynamic figure, driven by love and rage and the thousand mixed emotions that come from being an outsider. Ito Aghayere’s Roxane is richly realized, bringing a particular maturity to the role. This reviewer particularly enjoyed Khalif J. Gillett’s take on Ligniere, even if he somehow wound up getting most of Le Bret’s best bits. The opening scene, mixing the cast into the audience, hit exactly the right notes. The famous duel ballad could have been better, though admittedly it does sound rather like something improvised in the middle of a fight. 

Overall, this reviewer must regard the end result as something of a mixed bag. It should be noted that yours truly has had over the years a considerable emotional investment in the story, and as such any opinions will necessarily be colored thereby. That being said, I must confess myself disappointed. This is the “cool kids” version: the elements are all there, but the sense of being perpetually outside, of knowing whatever you do and however hard you try, you will always be apart from the world you long to be a part of, the very core of Cyrano, is only barely there. Cyrano’s noselessness, in fact, is something of a metaphor for the production as a whole. Never mind. Cyrano is still Cyrano, and whatever one does to him, one can never take away his panache.