Review: Cyrano de Bergerac at Northern Stage

Who knows what the man with the nose knows?

A Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Northern Stage co-production

Cyrano de Bergerac

Based on the translation written by Anthony Burgess

of the play written by Edmond Rostand

Directed by Lorne Campbell

Northern Stage, Newcastle

Wednesday 29 April to Saturday 16 May 2015

                      

Northern Stage, in association with the Royal & Derngate in Northampton, have produced a fascinating study into the human condition. Their artistic director, Lorne Campbell, has directed an evenly paced production that both engaging and faithful to its original source material.

Rehearsal

Photo: Mark Savage

As the audience enter the auditorium, the ensemble are warming up and using the gym equipment on stage.  From the start Le Bret (John Paul Connolly) immediately assumes control of the action on the stage.  The setting of the show is a theatre in 1640 Paris. In the time of The Three Musketeers these theatres, rather resembling tennis courts, we are told, are used to stage plays such as this. The audience are soon given the treat of a quick rap song which produced a number of laughs and didn’t feel out of place.

Rehearsal

Photo: Mark Savage

Cyrano de Bergerac (Nigel Barrett) enters the stage and confidently assumes centre stage. The role of Cyrano, in Anthony Burgess’s translation, is a fabulous one with lyrically rich monologues reminiscent of a more modern Shakespeare. The self deprecating put downs regarding his unusual nose makes one realise how much the 1987 film, starring Steve Marti, borrows from this play. This play, however, moves away from the saccharine sweet sentimentality of the film as it explores the three way tussle between nice but dim Christian (Chris Jared), Cyrano and the target of their desire Roxanne (Cath Whitfield).  The smart lighting design, by Tim Lutkin, picks out Cyrano as he supplies the chat up lines that Christian uses on Roxanne.

Rehearsal

Photo: Mark Savage

As the action moves off to war the action still has its light moments, but such moments only act as temporary respite from the harsh realities of the predicament that the characters find themselves in. The poetical dialogue from Cyrano is cut in with the realities of a starving army that is struggling to survive. The juxtaposition makes the ending much more powerful.

Cyrano de Bergerac is an entertaining classic drama which seemingly flies by quicker than the 3 hour running time suggests.  The wonderful cast and intelligent design couple to make a remarkable theatrical experience.

This review was written by Stephen Oliver for Jowheretogo PR (www.jowheretogo.com). Follow Jo on twitter @jowheretogo, Stephen @panic_c_button or like Jowheretogo on Facebook www.facebook.com/Jowheretogo

Read the original Jowheretogo Preview: http://nomorepanicbutton.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/preview-cyrano-de-bergerac-at-newcastle.html

Photos: Mark Savage 

Rehearsal

Photo: Mark Savage

Creative Team:

Lorne Campbell Director

Jean Chan Designer

Tim Lutkin Lighting Designer

Alasdair Mcrae Sound Designer

Ros Steen Voice Director

Liv Lorent Movement Director

Rebecca Frecknall Assistant Director

Cast:

Nigel Barrett Cyrano de Bergerac

John Paul Connolly Le Bret/Ligniere

Chris Jared Christian

George Potts De Guiche/Rageneau

Cath Whitefield Roxane

Ensemble:

Sian Armstrong           Samantha Bell            Kylie Ann Ford

Sisley Henning             Matt Howdon             James Hunter

Tickets:

Cyrano de Bergerac can be seen at Northern Stage from Wednesday 29 to Saturday 16 May

Times: Evenings 7.30pm (except Monday 11 May 6pm)

Matinees – Saturday 2pm

No performances on Sundays

Tickets: £24, £19.50 & £14.50 / Students & U21s £12

Box Office: 0191 230 5151 or online at www.northernstage.co.uk

Preview of Northern Stage in May 2015

Preview of Northern Stage in May 2015

Nigel Barrett as Cyrano - Photo: Robert Day

Cyrano de Bergerac

Wed 29 Apr - Sat 16 May, 7.30pm, Sat Matinee 2, 9 & 16 May, 2pm, Mon Straight From Work 11 May, 6pm

£24, £19.50 & £14.50 / Students & U21s £12

Nigel Barrett as Cyrano- with NORTH ensemble

Photo: Robert Day

Cyrano de Bergerac: a poet and a soldier, blessed with being brilliant at everything, cursed by having the biggest and ugliest nose in all of France. This swaggering epic fills the stage with passion, bravado, joy and heartache. A new Northern Stage / Royal & Derngate production directed by Lorne Campbell and written by Edmond Rostand, based on Anthony Burgess’ translation.

Read the Jowheretogo Preview

www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/Cyrano-de-Bergerac

National Theatre Connections

Tues 28 April – Sat 2 May, 7pm

£5

New plays performed by young people from across the North East from ten writers commissioned by the National Theatre.

www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/national-theatre-connections-2015

First in 3

Thu 7 May, 7.30pm

 £5

Our popular scratch night showcasing local theatre-makers’ upcoming work

www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/first-in-3-Oct

Big Red Bath

Photo: Shaun Armstrong, Mubsta Photography

Big Red Bath

Thu 7 - Sat 9 May, 7 May - 1.30pm & 3.30pm, 8 & 9 May - 10.30pm & 1.30pm

£8.50 adults, £6.50 children

A quirky, vibrant and humorous adaptation for 2-5 year olds of Julia Jarman’s popular children’s picture book.

www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/Big%20Red%20Bath

Greg Wohead - The Ted Bundy Project

Photo: Alex Brenner

The Ted Bundy Project

Tues 12 – Wed 13 May, 8pm

£10 / £8 concs

Texan writer and performer uses death row confession tapes of serial killer Ted Bundy to make a new performance about morbid curiosity. Recommended age 16+

www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/The-Ted-Bundy-Project

  

Where the Bear Sleeps

Wed 13 May, 8pm

£9 / £7 concs

Merging myth, epic and fairytale, storyteller Nick Hennessy delivers us from Northern Stage to the snow-swathed, Finnish far-North.

www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/where-the-bear-sleeps

Phoenix Dance Theatre

Phoenix Dance Theatre: Shadows

Thu 28 May, 7.30pm

 £24, £19.50 & £14.50 / Students & U21s £12

An exhilarating mixed programme including a double bill by renowned choreographer, Christopher Bruce CBE.

www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/Phoenix%20Dance%20Theatre

Sean Campion and Scott Turnbull

in Gods Are Fallen All Safety Gone

by Greyscale - Photo by Idil Sukan

Gods are Fallen, All Safety Gone

Thu 4 - Sat 6 Jun, 8pm

£10 / £8 concs

Intimate and funny, an investigation into what happens when we discover that our parents are flawed human beings, and that at some point, sooner than we think, they are suddenly going to disappear from our lives.

Read the Jowheretogo Preview 

www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/gods-are-fallen-all-safety-gone

The Six O' Clock News

Fri 3 Jul, 7.45pm

 £10 / £8 concs

Whatever the headlines that day, Daniel Bye and a team of specially-selected artists will digest and respond to them for your viewing pleasure, creating an evening of urgently topic contemporary performance about the big issues of today.

www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/the-six-o-clock-news

Tickets:

Box Office:  0191 230 5151

Website: http://www.northernstage.co.uk/

Preview: Cyrano de Bergerac at Newcastle Northern Stage

A poet, a soldier, a brawler...

and a hopeless romantic

 A Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Northern Stage co-production

Cyrano de Bergerac

Based on the translation written by Anthony Burgess

of the play written by Edmond Rostand

Directed by Lorne Campbell

Royal & Derngate, Northampton

Friday 3 – Saturday 25 April

Northern Stage, Newcastle

Wednesday 29 April to Saturday 16 May

Director Lorne Campbell

with Kylie Ann Ford

Photo: Mark Savage

Royal & Derngate’s Made in Northampton 2015 season starts in April with the sweeping epic, Cyrano de Bergerac. Directed by Lorne Campbell, Anthony Burgess’ translation of Edmund Rostand’s classic play is a co-production with Northern Stage, and takes to the Royal stage in Northampton from Friday 3 April, transferring to Newcastle from 29 April.

A poet and a soldier, a brawler and an incurable romantic, Cyrano do Bergerac is a hero – the first among men but totally lost among women. He is blessed with being brilliant at everything and cursed by having the biggest nose in all of France.

Cyrano is hopelessly in love with Roxane, his equal in wit but every bit as beautiful as he is ugly. Afraid of confessing his love, he becomes a protector and confidante. Christian, a handsome cadet but not the sharpest sword in the armoury, catches Roxane’s eye and, with his mighty heart breaking, Cyrano sets about using his unequalled skill as a poet to write ravishing love letters between the two.

The panache of one of literature’s most famous love triangles is brought to life in this epic production, staged with passion, bravado, joy and heartache. Duels are fought, honour defended, villains defeated, and cakes eaten.

Lorne Campbell, Chris Jared and George Potts

Photo: Mark Savage

Cyrano de Bergerac is directed by Northern Stage Artistic Director Lorne Campbell, who comments: “Cyrano is scaled up in every way, not just his nose, but his bravery and his vulnerability, his honour and his self-loathing, his soaring poetry and his profound inarticulacy. This is what I love about the play, it takes that ridiculous deluded mess of a person we all carry around inside ourselves and lets them out onto the stage, bigger and better while also more absurd and crippled than we could ever be.”

James Hunter and Nigel Barrett

with director Lorne Campbell

Photo: Mark Savage

Lorne, whose credits include Carthage Must Be Destroyed and Distracted at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, will be working with designer Jean Chan (James and the Giant Peach, Dundee Rep, The James Plays, National Theatre/National Theatre of Scotland as Associate Designer). Lighting design is by Tim Lutkin who recently won an Olivier for Chimerica, with other credits including The Crucible (Old Vic), Royal & Derngate’s Christmas show Merlin and The Go-Between, a co-production between Royal & Derngate, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Derby Theatre. Sound design is by Alasdair Mcrae whose recent work includes Get Santa! and The Bloody Great Border Ballad Project for Northern Stage and Gastronauts for the Royal Court.

Nigel Barrett and James Hunter

rehearse a fight scene

Photo: Mark Savage

Nigel Barrett whose credits include There Has Possibly Been An Incident, Royal Exchange Manchester/ SohoTheatre, Richard III – An Arab Tragedy, for RSC/Bouffes du Nord and The Passion with Michael Sheen, takes the central role of Cyrano. Nigel is a member of the Shunt Collective and recently won The Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2015 with Louise Mari. Cath Whitefield (Electra, The Gate, Othello, RSC) appears as Roxane and Chris Jared (All’s Well That Ends Well, Hamlet, RSC) completes the legendary love triangle as Christian. The cast also includes John Paul Connolly (Twelfth Night, Richard III, Shakespeare’s Globe, West End and Broadway) as Le Bret/Ligniere and George Potts (1984, Headlong Theatre; The Silver Tassie, National Theatre) as De Guiche/Rageneau.

Cyrano company movement

rehearsals with Liv Lorent, Movement Director

Photo: Mark Savage

The Chorus is made up of six emerging performers from Northern Stage’s NORTH scheme – a 21 week paid training programme to support and develop young actors in the North East of England. Lorne Campbell explains, “NORTH is part of Northern Stage’s commitment to creating access and opportunities for working class actors with exceptional talent, so we’re delighted that they’re working with us on our big spring production this year.” Kylie Ann Ford, Sisley Henning, Sian Armstrong, Samantha Bell, James Hunter and Matt Howdon will take on dozens of ensemble roles.

Creative Team:

Lorne Campbell Director

Jean Chan Designer

Tim Lutkin Lighting Designer

Alasdair Mcrae Sound Designer

Ros Steen Voice Director

Liv Lorent Movement Director

Rebecca Frecknall Assistant Director

Cast:

Nigel Barrett Cyrano de Bergerac

John Paul Connolly Le Bret/Ligniere

Chris Jared Christian

George Potts De Guiche/Rageneau

Cath Whitefield Roxane

Ensemble:

Sian Armstrong                    Samantha Bell            Kylie Ann Ford

Sisley Henning                      Matt Howdon              James Hunter

Tickets:

Cyrano de Bergerac can be seen at Royal & Derngate, Northampton from Friday 3 to Saturday 25 April and at Northern Stage from Wednesday 29 to Saturday 16 May www.northernstage.co.uk.

Royal & Derngate, Guildhall Road, Northampton NN1 1DP

Dates: Friday 3 to Saturday 25 April 2015

Times: Evenings 7.45pm (except Tuesday 7 April 7pm)

Matinees – Thursday and Saturday 2.30pm

No performances on Sundays

Tickets: £10 to £29*

Box Office: 01604 624811 or online at www.royalandderngate.co.uk 

A transaction fee of £2.80 applies to telephone and website bookings only. Does not apply in person, or to Groups and Friends, and is per-transaction, not per-ticket.

Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear NE1 7RH

Dates: Wednesday 29 April to Saturday 16 May 2015

Times: Evenings 7.30pm (except Monday 11 May 6pm)

Matinees – Saturday 2pm

No performances on Sundays

Tickets: £24, £19.50 & £14.50 / Students & U21s £12

Box Office: 0191 230 5151 or online at www.northernstage.co.uk

New Season Preview of Northern Stage Spring 2015

Spring 2015 at Northern Stage

From action-packed drama and breathtaking dance on the main stage, to new work by some of the country’s most inspiring companies and a new series of residencies in Stage 2, to a diverse programme of fringe performances, spoken word, and scratch nights in the intimate setting of Stage 3, Spring 2015 is jam packed with the kind of bold, innovative, top quality work audiences have come to expect at Northern Stage.

Kicking off the season in style is A Night Extraordinary (4 February) – a special Gala event celebrating some of the North East’s best talent, including performances from Mark Benton (Waterloo Road), Charlie Hardwick (Emmerdale) and Vicky Elliot (Hebburn) alongside new and emerging artists. The event will raise funds to enable Northern Stage to continue to support and develop young theatre-makers in the region, and A Night Extraordinary will showcase some of the outstanding talent to come out of Northern Stage’s NORTH programme, including The Letter Room and Camisado Club.

The critically acclaimed Birdsong (23 – 28 February), written by Rachel Wagstaff based on the world famous novel by Sebastian Faulks, was seen by over 130,000 people in 2013 and 2014. The author was thrilled the show has been re-mounted to tour again marking the 100th anniversary of the First World War saying, “Both Rachel and I want this to be the definitive version of Birdsong on stage. The audience watch it and think, ‘thank God I have never undergone all of this’. These experiences are far outside the lives of most people but there is something about the way the production works which makes people identify and think, ‘it could be me..’.”Jowheretogo Reviewed this show on its 2014 tour: Birdsong Review

Northern Stage Artistic Director Lorne Campbell will direct Cyrano de Bergerac (29 April – 16 May) in a new production based on Anthony Burgess’ translation of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play. Lorne said: “This is a play of true scale, and Royal & Derngate and Northern Stage collaborating again in this way allows us both to create something this ambitious for our stages. It is a remarkable play in a remarkable version. An epic and profoundly human love story about the greatness and weakness that lives in all of us.” Alongside the professional cast, the Cyrano ensemble will made up of six emerging actors from NORTH 2015 - a professional development programme for young theatre-makers to develop their skills and begin to build a sustainable, diverse and exciting career in the North East.

After the success of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream, Filter return to Northern Stage with their trademark fusion of performance with integrated live music and sound in a radical re-creation of Macbeth (10-14 March).

For theatre goers with a taste for the wonderfully

unconventional there’s Unfolding Theatre’s 2014 Edinburgh Fringe hit, Lands of Glass (26-28 February) - live music played on specially created glass instruments bringing best-selling Italian novelist Alessandro Baricco’s work to life.

Improbable Theatre explore what happens when they meet experts in their field from outside the world of theatre on stage in The Still (6-7 February).

The genre defying Clod Ensemble come to Northern Stage for the first time with The Red Chair (24-25 March), an intimate show with an original dark fairy tale at its heart.

A Lyrical Dance Concert (24-25 February) - a party in a comedy double act, in a cabaret show, in a gig, in an experimental dance performance.Jowheretogo has a preview of this show: preview Lyrical Dance Concert

For families with children aged 6 and over, Theatre Alibi’s I Believe in Unicorns (16-18 April) is a spellbinding tale about the power of stories to transform our lives from the writer of Warhorse, Michael Morpurgo. While for younger children, Big Red Bath (7-9 May) is quirky, vibrant and humorous adaptation for 2-5 year olds of Julia Jarman’s popular children’s picture book.

When it comes to ground-breaking dance, Wim Vendekeybus’s thrilling, dangerous and playful show is still one of the most theatrical and physical performances ever made - Dance Touring Partnership presents Ultima Vez: What the Body Does Not Remember (17-18 March).

Phoenix Dance Theatre return with Shadows (28 May), an exhilarating mixed programme including a double bill by renowned choreographer, Christopher Bruce CBE.

Spoken word shows include Confirmation (23-24 March), Chris Thorpe and Rachel Chavkin’s award-wining 2014 Edinburgh Fringe show about the gulfs we can't talk across, and the way we choose to see only the evidence that proves we're right.

Standby for Tape Back-Up (10-11 March) - Ross Sutherland’s extraordinary one man show compiled from found footage;

Jack Bennett asks ‘Isn’t it daft that we ask teenagers to make really big decisions about their lives?’ in Too Much Too Young (10-11 February) - Joweheretogo reviewed Jack's show in 2014: Review: Too Much Too Young

Award-winning theatre-maker Daniel Bye is Going Viral (15-16 July); and Crick Crack Club return with grown up fairy tales in Where the Bear Sleeps (13 May).

A new residency scheme sees Northern Stage supporting some of the region’s most exciting artists and companies. In 2015, Theatre Hullaballoo, Unfolding Theatre, Selina Thompson, Fuel and Will Adamsdale, Hannah Nicklin, Luca Rutherford and Camisado Club will be in residency to develop new work for audiences in the region and beyond.

Our collaboration with Northumbria University final year BA (hons) Performance, Scriptwriting and Drama students includes performances of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s Idomeneus directed by Rebecca Frecknall (working with Northern Stage for 18 months through the Regional Young Director Scheme), and More Light by Bryony Lavery directed by Amy Golding, alongside free script readings, presentations and a public symposium asking Do Young People Really Need Drama? (20-23 May).

Plus, stand-up comedy from Mark Thomas with Cuckooed (20 February), poetry with Radikal Words’ Great Northern Slam (8 April) and scratch nights First in 3 (5 March & 7 May) and Young People’s First in 3 (18 February).

Tickets:

For full details or to book tickets online see www.northernstage.co.uk

On The Web:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/northernstage

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/northernstage