Cyrano de Bergerac – Noël Coward Theatre, London

Writer: Edmond Rostand

Adaptors by: Debris Stevenson and Simon Evans

Director: Simon Evans

The RSC’s Cyrano de Bergerac in this new adaptation by Simon Evans and Debris Stevenson pulses with high-energy delight. The modernised word-play scintillates while at the same time we catch strings of the inventive rhyming which characterised Edmond Rostand’s 1897 original.

From the off  – a vibrant, colourfully chaotic scene in a Paris theatre – we’re thoroughly on board. In no time, Christian Patterson’s larger-than-life Ragueneau has us on our feet obeying his hare-brained orders. We’re really in a theatre – actors lean over from balconies and boxes – one of them can’t find his way back to the stage – and there’s a general panic that the all-important Cyrano hasn’t turned up.

No one can quite make sense of a troupe of six musicians who wander in, until it’s revealed that Cyrano has somehow won them in a bet. They’re a great addition. Musical director Josh Sneesby and his talented band play their own music and that of composer Alex Baranowski. Like Cyrano himself, the musicians are improvisers, bursting into whatever suits the mood. At one end, stirring drumming creates a noisy bar-room chant for the young soldiers. At the other, music offers a whole range of subtle emotions through which we see Cyrano’s underlying vulnerability. The musicians’ masks, dominated by huge noses, are a nice touch.

Adrian Lester is phenomenal as the maverick soldier, poet, lover and friend. His delivery is nothing less than thrilling, and at the same time, he comes over as a fully human character. In contrast, there’s Monfleury (Chris Nayak), the actor who, we’re told, has dazzled audiences with his Romeo for 40 years. Monfleury’s mannered acting is no match for Cyrano’s wit.

And this goes to the very heart of Cyrano. He rejoices in linguistic daring, loving nothing better than the equivalent of battle rap. In a particularly glorious scene, Cyrano laughs at the linguistic poverty of an insult about his ‘fucking huge’ nose, promptly making up an acrostic, each line a gem about vast noses (‘The elephant in the room’ is no longer a cliché).

It’s his huge nose, of course, that has convinced Cyrano that he’s too ugly to attract the love of Roxane, his friend since childhood. Some of the great comic scenes involve his altruistic attempts to help handsome dim-wit Christian woo her. Levi Brown gives a perfect performance, with his Brummie accent and limited vocabulary. Challenged by Roxane to expand on his blurted-out ‘I love you!’, all he can manage is a tentative, ‘I adore you?’ A third would-be lover is the pompous Count de Guiche. From his badly pressed suit to his too-long hair, Scott Handt beautifully embodies the Count’s self-importance.

Susannah Fielding is fabulous as the spirited Roxane, newly (and happily) widowed. She doesn’t just have beauty: she alone has a wit that comfortably competes with his. The scenes between yearning Cyrano and self-confident Roxane sparkle. But we’ve seen Cyrano briefly ecstatic when he believes she might love him, and now know he’s inwardly crushed. Roxane increasingly realises that it’s words that seduce, particularly when the men go off to fight the Spanish, and she receives exquisite letters, written, as she thinks, by Christian. There are all sorts of delicious plot twists where it seems all will be revealed.

And somehow, when the end comes, it is genuinely touching.

Theatre programmes don’t often get a mention, but the one for this production is full of fascinating stuff. Simon Evans talks of his embrace of uncomplicated sincerity, wanting to make the audience experience ‘something unashamedly emotional: where they will laugh and cry and open their heart a bit.’ And Debris Stevenson (‘Grime-poet, multidisciplinary artist, neurodivergent academic and professional raver’) gives an astonishing analysis of how she developed different poetic codes for each character: ‘Christian cannot use a Latinate word; Cyrano cannot use a cliché’.

A dazzling, ultimately moving show

Runs until 5 September 2026