A stripped-down 'Cyrano' — a London import — is all about language

A stripped-down 'Cyrano' — a London import — is all about language

Transcript¹

Most people know Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac as a romantic, swashbuckling classic, staged with swords and capes² and a big prosthetic nose. But a new production opening Wednesday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with film star James McAvoy as Cyrano, dispenses³ with all that.

Instead, there's beatboxing, a multiracial cast in modern dress and Scottish actor McAvoy with his own regular-sized nose, rapping about how very large it is. Cyrano tells the story of a romantic triangle — the poetic⁴ soldier Cyrano loves the beautiful and witty⁵ Roxane, who in turn loves the handsome, but tongue-tied Christian⁶. So, Cyrano helps the young man win Roxane by providing him with the words he doesn't have.

"This is about three people who are objectified and who suffer because of their objectification," says McAvoy. "Whether they're objectified because they are beautiful or ugly or not. It's about the feeling. And I think that not having the nose allows us to see all their pain." And wit. And passion.

The spartan⁷ staging, where actors frequently speak into microphones and sit looking directly at the audience, instead of each other, provides a feeling of closeness. "From an acting⁸ point of view, it makes eye contact feel so intimate," says Evelyn Miller⁹, whose Roxane is portrayed¹⁰ as a college student wearing a denim¹¹ jumpsuit. "To turn and look [at another actor], after doing a five-minute scene where you haven't looked at them at all — you've just been listening profoundly and intensely — to suddenly turn and make eye contact feels so intimate."

Listening to the language profoundly and intensely in this contemporary adaptation is what director Jamie Lloyd is after — not just for the actors, but for the audience. "We paint on the back wall ... a particular sentence that Cyrano says: 'I love words. That's all,'" he says. "And in a way, that became the kind of defining idea of the entire production; it was only about the words, in a play that features characters that are obsessed¹² with language."

He says they use language in ways that can be wonderful or damaging. At one point, Cyrano wins a duel¹³, purely¹⁴ with his linguistic¹⁵ gifts. You don't need to see a sword to know that he's cut his opponent to the quick.

Lloyd commissioned playwright¹⁶ Martin Crimp to write the adaptation. Since Crimp is fluent in French, he read the Rostand in the original. "The thing that I responded to most strongly as a writer is the language, is the virtuosic¹⁷ display," Crimp says. "One rule [for me] was that the rhyming couplets were really important. If I got rid of those, I'd be throwing out the baby with the bathwater."

Lloyd highlights the language in different ways: Because the actors talk directly into their microphones, they can speak softly and everyone in the theater can hear them. "In many ways, it's more like screen acting than stage acting," he says. "And, in fact, even more than that, it's more like radio acting."

For McAvoy, the style of this nose-less Cyrano, which has played in Glasgow and won an Olivier for Best Revival¹⁸ in London, forces audiences to lean in. "I've never experienced silences in the audience like this," the actor says. "I've experienced pauses and things like that. But the silence in the audience is unbelievable."

It's a response McAvoy hopes Cyrano gets from Brooklyn audiences, as well.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 capes   

碎谷； 斗篷( cape的名词复数 )； 披肩； 海角； 岬

参考例句：

• It was cool and they were putting on their capes. 夜里阴冷，他们都穿上了披风。
• The pastor smiled to give son's two Capes five cents money. 牧师微笑着给了儿子二角五分钱。

3 dispenses   

v.分配，分与；分配( dispense的第三人称单数 )；施与；配（药）

参考例句：

• The machine dispenses a range of drinks and snacks. 这台机器发售各种饮料和小吃。
• This machine dispenses coffee. 这台机器发售咖啡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

5 witty   

adj.机智的，风趣的

参考例句：

• Her witty remarks added a little salt to the conversation.她的妙语使谈话增添了一些风趣。
• He scored a bull's-eye in their argument with that witty retort.在他们的辩论中他那一句机智的反驳击中了要害。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 spartan   

adj.简朴的，刻苦的；n.斯巴达；斯巴达式的人

参考例句：

• Their spartan lifestyle prohibits a fridge or a phone.他们不使用冰箱和电话，过着简朴的生活。
• The rooms were spartan and undecorated.房间没有装饰，极为简陋。

8 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

9 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

10 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 denim   

n.斜纹棉布；斜纹棉布裤，牛仔裤

参考例句：

• She wore pale blue denim shorts and a white denim work shirt.她穿着一条淡蓝色的斜纹粗棉布短裤，一件白粗布工作服上衣。
• Dennis was dressed in denim jeans.丹尼斯穿了一条牛仔裤。

12 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

13 duel   

n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争

参考例句：

• The two teams are locked in a duel for first place.两个队为争夺第一名打得难解难分。
• Duroy was forced to challenge his disparager to duel.杜洛瓦不得不向诋毁他的人提出决斗。

14 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

15 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

16 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

17 virtuosic   

adj.艺术名家的，艺术品收藏家的；乐器演奏能手的

参考例句：

18 revival   

n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振

参考例句：

• The period saw a great revival in the wine trade.这一时期葡萄酒业出现了很大的复苏。
• He claimed the housing market was showing signs of a revival.他指出房地产市场正出现复苏的迹象。