“Why is this RSC reinvention of Edmond Rostand’s much-revived 1897 play so unusually enchanting,” asked Dominic Maxwell in The Times. Is it Adrian Lester, never better, as the large-nosed, “gilet-sporting, verse-spouting” soldier of the title, “handy in a duel, even handier with a turn of phrase”? Is it Susannah Fielding as his “ideal woman”, Roxane? Is it Simon Evans and the poet Debris Stevenson’s lively modern-language translation? Is it the humour, “which nestles this tragicomedy even at its saddest”? The truth is that nearly everything in Evans’ “huge-hearted production” is perfectly calibrated. Even the famous nose is nicely done: big enough for you to see why Cyrano, beneath the bravado, is deeply insecure – “but not so big that you spend time wondering how it stays on”.
Lester is the highlight of the show, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. As Cyrano, channelling his love for Roxane through the handsome but tongue-tied young soldier Christian (Levi Brown), writing his love letters and feeding him lines, Lester gives this production its “sublimely wounded soul”. The staging is “nifty”, too, bringing the romance and violence of France’s 17th-century golden age to life.
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I found the production a little tricksy, said Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph. “Each character has their own speaking style: whether that be monosyllabic Christian, Roxane breaking lines as her thoughts fly, or Cyrano’s rhymes shifting to map his mood.” But the big set-pieces work beautifully, notably the famous balcony scene, in which Cyrano first whispers advice to Christian, and then woos Roxane himself, from the shadows. “It’s not perfect. But, played confidently across the board, and bolstered to the hilt by Lester’s presence, it’s another RSC must-see.”
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