In APT's new adaptation swashbuckling Cyrano has a softer side

By Lindsay Christians, The Capital Times

July 10, 2017

An epic love story must contain struggle. A difference in station will do, or a war. Or perhaps 14 years of deception.

“Cyrano de Bergerac,” Edmond Rostand's swashbuckling 1897 chestnut of chivalry, offers all three, making it a classic in the melodramatic canon. A new production at American Players Theatre explores the idea that Cyrano’s vulnerability, not his swordsman’s skill or flair for poetry, is what makes him an enduring hero.

Running alongside “A Midsummer Night's Dream” and the rowdy French farce “A Flea in Her Ear,” “Cyrano” opened over the Fourth of July weekend and runs up the hill through Oct. 6. With a center-stage balcony built by Nathan Stuber, it’s the first play in repertory to return to the bridgelike “inner above” set design that recent renovations made optional.

Director Jim DeVita, an APT company member who has long been a playwright as well, sets “Cyrano” in his own new adaptation. Drawn from four separate translations, DeVita’s script blends classic poetic language with quick contemporary asides (“you’ve noticed that?”).

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