Cyrano De Bergarac is a classic 1897 play by French playwright Edmond Rostand, and has been performed numerous times and starred many famous actors over the years. This is a new version for the RSC by Simon Evans and Debris Stevenson, making its London transfer from the Stratford stage, and it is a corker!
Evans and Stevenson have kept the original plot and managed to retain much of the poetic style while making it up-to-date, lively, very funny and fully engaging. Highly theatrical from the very beginning, Christian Patterson comes onto the stage as Ragueneau to welcome the audience and explain that in theatre we are separate from “The world out there, Us quiet in here”. The cast makes full use of the theatre space, entering through the auditorium, appearing on balconies and in the boxes, no doubt reflecting some of the presentation used on the thrust stage in the Stratford Swan Theatre. Although set in its original time frame, playing a love story with an intellectual lead full of witticisms and clever wordplay against the background of war was a useful parallel for our own times.
Adrian Lester is superb in the title role. He commands the stage and exhibits the full range of Cyrano’s complex emotions: successful warrior, poet and wordsmith, while being inherently insecure about his appearance. The production team had made the very sensible decision not to make his nose ridiculously large as has sometimes been done. He was certainly not ugly or grotesque, but his angst over his body image was a good reflection of the modern pre-occupation with body image.
Cyrano is attended by a band of players which he won in a bet! These six accomplished musicians form part of the action, playing music throughout, both on and off the stage. The music composed by Alex Baranowski added enormously to the overall feel of the production and the emotions which were projected by the cast, particularly Cyrano who would conduct them periodically.
The staging was fairly simple with some fortress type walls around the playing area, transformed by the cast as required to form a courtyard, the interior of the inn and the battlefield as required. Mention should also be made of the superb lighting designed by Joshie Harriette, which did much to create the superb ambiance of the scenes and transitions between them. The sword fighting sequences designed by Bethan Clark took my breath away: it would be worth seeing the production just for these.
Cyrano de Bergerac is playing at the Noel Coward Theatre until 5th September 2026
Tickets are available from https://www.noelcowardtheatre.co.uk/
Reviewer: Paul Ackroyd
Reviewed: 23rd June 2026
North West End UK Rating: