Theatre 2026: Cyrano @ CAA Theatre

Edmond Rostand wrote his classic French play Cyrano de Bergerac in 1897 about a skilled swordsman and witty poet who loves Roxanne but is too insecure about the size of his nose to pursue her for himself. Instead, he helps handsome but shallow and inarticulate rival Christian woo her by writing her flowery letters in Christian’s name and then speaking on his behalf in the famous balcony scene. The iconic character is inspired by the real-life Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655), a French novelist, playwright, letter-writer, duelist and perhaps a visionary since he is touted as the “first writer to depict space flight”. He did not have an unusually big nose, so that was just a plot device in Rostand’s story.

Since Rostand’s play was first mounted, there have been innumerable adaptations from other plays to movies to musicals.  It has been produced as play at Stratford, Ontario four times including once starring Christopher Plummer in 1962 and twice with Colm Feore, in 1994 and again in 2009.  The earliest film adaptation was a silent French movie from 1900, while more well-known versions include one in 1950 starring José Ferrer in the title role and in 1990, Gérard Depardieu took a turn. Each of these adaptations followed the origin story quite closely and depicted Cyrano’s large nose visually. Rostand’s play crossed many genres by blending comedic and romantic moments with swashbuckling action and tragedy, involving war and the deaths of both leading men. It is interesting that Rostand considered his play a heroic comedy and saw Cyrano as a hero for maintaining his pride and “panache” to the end.  In contemporary times, Cyrano would be viewed more as a tragic hero with a fatal or tragic flaw that allowed his insecurities to stop him from being vulnerable enough to find and accept love.

Recently, adaptors have looked for different ways to maintain the gist of the plot while adding their own twists to a timeless tale. A 2021 film musical adaptation, led by a singing Peter Dinkage, maintains the setting, time period and plot points, but substitutes the embarrassing nose for dwarfism. This is one of several versions that prove the nose is just a metaphor for any insecurity that might stop a suitor from declaring his feelings at the risk of rejection.  In a 2019-2020 modernized and stripped-down London West End production of the play starring James McAvoy, there are only a few chairs on the set, the characters dressed in black t-shirts, jeans and leather jackets, and perform rap battles with their microphones as opposed to sword fights.  McAvoy’s character is referenced to as having a large nose but no physical prosthetic nose is used. Cyrano’s insecurities and shame are conveyed through McAvoy’s speech, language and brooding, emotive performance. The actual nose is left to the audience’s imagination.

The 1987 modernized romantic comedy Roxanne starring Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah is one of the first adaptations that changes the tone of the entire story. It maintains just the bare bones of the plot but mostly follows the traditional romantic comedy tropes with the “boy gets girl” happy ending. Cyrano is now a witty firefighter named C.D.Bales who loves Roxanne but helps his colleague Chris court her by feeding him lines to say to her.  This includes a hilarious scene involving a radio transmitter that goes rogue. Played totally for laughs, C.D. sports an absurdly long hooked nose that attracts birds to perch on it. Instead of sword duels, C.D. partakes in a battle of wits to deflate a bully who calls him “big nose” by self-deprecatingly coming up with 20 “better jokes”, a modern, comedic spin on the classic nose rant by Rostand’s Cyrano in Act I of his play.

The movie Roxanne paved the way for happier versions of Cyrano-based love triangle plots. There are even versions featuring teenagers such as the movies The Half of It, Sierra Burgess is a Loser, and Whatever It Takes, as well as a punny jukebox musical titled Cyrano de BurgerShack whose setting is exactly as the title alludes to. The film is now such a modern-day classic that many contemporary viewers might not even know about the original Cyrano’s tragic fate. My own introduction into the origin story came when I listened to the lyrics of a studio recording of an unproduced 2002 musical version of Cyrano written by Michael and Rick Fox, featuring Canadian stage icon Brent Carver in the starring role. Without ever watching a performance, I was able to glean the whole story from the wonderful songs. What a shame that this never got produced.

Just in the past few years, there have been not one but two gender-bending, lesbian-centric versions of Cyrano each played by a woman. Starstruck is a musical adaption with music by Emily Saliers of the late 80s-90s duo Indigo Girls. Cyrano is now the female park ranger and astronomer Cyd who loves Roxanne but helps Chris send romantic texts to Roxanne. This show premiered in Pennsylvania in February 2026 with hopes of eventually making it to Broadway. It is interesting to see the method of correspondence change from letter-writing to texting as technology changes over time.

This deep dive into the history of Cyrano finally brings me to the play that we watched as the last show of our 2025/26 Off-Mirvish Season. Simply titled “Cyrano” but marketed as “the gender-flipping Cyrano” written by Virginia Gay, the eponymous titular role is cast as a woman who falls in love at first sight with the luminous and intelligent Roxanne who in turn falls “in lust” with the hunky Yan (a clever play on “Christ-ian”). This Cyrano once again is portrayed without a physical prosthetic nose, following in the vein of McAvoy’s performance.

We knew that we were in for something different when the 90-minutes, one-act play started with a “cold open”, without the typical pre-show land acknowledgements or warnings about no photos, turn off your cell phones, and unwrap your candy. Three unnamed characters (billed in the programme as “1”, “2” and “3”) appear as stagehands or perhaps bit players on a sparse stage that only contains three boxes of varying heights and a moveable, spiral staircase that will eventually be used in the infamous balcony scene. These three characters function as a “Greek Chorus”, providing commentary and acting as a sounding board for the main characters, both encouraging and challenging them. The Chorus also stands in for some of the numerous other characters in the original play.

This version of Cyrano is presented as a meta-play within-play where the lines blur between the theatrical setting and the main plot of the story.  The chorus interacts directly with Cyrano, Roxanne and Yan, not actors playing these roles, further obscuring the difference between what is the play and what is the play within the play. The characters also address the audience, so it is like the fourth wall is broken both in the inner play and the outer one.

Chorus #1 and #2 are more experienced, road-weary theatre-hands who try to mentor #3, a young, naive and exuberant newbie. They caution her against commenting on Cyrano’s nose—a warning that she promptly forgets and ignores when confronted with the infamous protrusion. This leads to another modernized version of the famous “nose rant” scene.  Cyrano takes offense to #3’s pedestrian reference to her nose and proceeds with a lengthy, fevered tirade, spewing out colloquial synonyms that are more inspired and imaginative including “Schnoz”, “Honker”,” Beak”, and functional descriptions such as “Blocking sightlines”.

At the start of the play, the Chorus and Cyrano seem to deliberate how the play should proceed. When Roxanne first appears, is she already known to Cyrano (a cousin?) or a stranger?  Throughout the show, they debate whether there is a chance of a happy ending for Cyrano.  Chorus #1 mildly encourages the possibility while the older, skeptical #2 champions staying true to the traditional work.  Chorus #3 is not familiar with the origin story so her main reference to the name Roxanne is the song by the Police which she repeatedly tries to sing.  Too inexperienced to understand boundaries, she firmly pushes for change and advocates for a happy ending.

When the hot, arrogant but dumb “Yan” finally appears, he is hilarious and steals the show. Sporting reflective sunglasses (think Tom Cruise in Top Gun), and a tight wife-beater tank which he lifts to wipe those glasses, he effectively flaunts his ripped abs. The best joke of the show involves his name “Yan” since he doesn’t want to be mixed up with the other famous “Chrises” – Hemsworth, Pine, Evans or Pratt (fat or thin versions). The physical interactions between Yan and Cyrano border on slapstick.

Traditional versions of Cyrano portray Roxanne as intelligent but without much female agency, as was the norm of the time when the original play was set. She does not become upset or angry at Cyrano’s deception although I guess it would be hard given that he is dying!  The modern adaptations of Cyrano change this as Roxanne is furious at being tricked and basically “catfished” into sleeping with Chris. The same happens in Virginia Gay’s play where Roxanne storms off and has to be wooed back to achieve the desired “queer happy ending” that the playwright aimed for.  The result is literally an apology party that the audience is invited to join in on.

It has been very interesting analyzing the many varied adaptations of Cyrano. It is one of those special tales with such a universal theme that it becomes resonant and enduring, yet so amenable to different spins from setting to time period to genre to gender and colour-blind casting. It joins such classics as Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol, Dracula, or Frankenstein in being ubiquitous yet unique in its various adaptations. Virginia Gay’s version of Cyrano with its unique framing device is a welcome addition to the long list of adaptations of Rostand’s masterpiece.