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Holding out for a hero
The lunchtime audience in the Chicago Cultural Center theater (legal occupancy: 249) was small (18 attendees plus five panelists), but the question was big: “Is Cyrano a Hero?”
Thomas Pavel, chair of Romance languages & literature at Chicago, hosted the discussion, held in conjunction with the Redmoon Theatre/Court Theatre production at the Museum of Contemporary Art, where it has received rave reviews—the Chicago Tribune called it a “richly provocative interpretation of a classic” with “a visual environment resembling a 19th-century puppet show gone mad.”
Responding to the intimacy of the group, Pavel and his panelists—Court artistic director Charles Newell, dramaturg Sarah Gubbins, translator Mickle Maher, and Allen Gilmore, who portrays Cyrano—abandoned table, chairs, and microphones to perch on the edge of the stage as they dissected the heroic mettle of Cyrano de Bergerac, French dramatist Edmond Rostand’s larger-than-life protagonist with larger-than-life proboscis.
Although everyone agreed with Pavel that “Cyrano is a hero with a flaw,” they found the flaw harder to pin down. “In these self-activated times,” Newell said, Cyrano can come across as “a coward, an idiot,” unable to accept Roxane’s love. Dramaturg Gubbins and translator Maher emphasized the idealistic nature of Cyrano’s personality and passion. “He can’t be with Roxane,” said Maher, “because if he were, he wouldn’t be Cyrano.” And Gilmore saw him as a wise man made a fool by love: “He does things around her he just can’t help.”
The third and final session of the We’re Talkin’ Classics symposium series, “The Language of Words: Conceiving and Creating CYRANO,” takes place on the day of the play’s last performance, Sunday, June 27, at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
M.R.Y.
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Photos: just another love story? Cyrano looks on as Roxane looks away(left); a larger-than-life protagonist with a larger-than-life proboscis (middle); Christian speaks Cyrano’s words of love for Roxane (right).
Photos by Michael Brosilow.
June 16, 2004
Since the Edmond Rostand character is my namesake, I wonder how the actors pronounced Roxane's name. I'm a little late in getting onto this blog, but if anyone connected to this production is reading, please let me know. I have spent a lifetime committed to my mother's conviction that the second syllable be pronounced with an "ah," unlike the anglicized sound of "Roxanne" (note second "n"). It has not been good for my social life, but I wouldn't change now. It can sound a little haughty to correct people on your name -- whatever that name may be. But going from "rox-ANNE" to "rox-AHN" seems tantamount to making people sing opera in their underwear. Very off-putting to some with a frequently alienating effect. And -- no -- it's not the way I issue the correction. I've tried everything. Some just can't hear it. They end up with "Roxana." But others literally blush and fumble when addressing me correctly, then resort to "Roxanne" when others are listening. Can there be such shame in it?
Posted by: Roxane at January 11, 2006 4:23 PM
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