After a symphony of groans in both sections of Dr. Mary Beth Tallon’s English 43 class, it was official: students are not thrilled to see a required play. No one seemed to be excited about sitting at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater for two hours and 56 minutes on Tuesday for the production of Cyrano de Bergerac, a play about an ugly man named Cyrano whom no woman could ever love. “I always request that students attend plays as part of my classes,” Tallon said, “It’s essential to see the literature staged as it was meant to be and to judge it in that light. I chose Cyrano because it is a great classic of the theater and is not to be missed.”
Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in the late 1890s by Edmond Rostand. Cyrano is a poet and swordsman, but his ugliness does not stop him from falling in love with Roxanne, the most beautiful woman he knows. As it is a tragedy, she does not return his love, but fosters love for a beautiful man, Christian. Roxanne loves poetry and beauty, and since neither man has both, they work together to woo the woman of their dreams.
They go through a series of meetings with Roxanne where Cyrano feeds Christian poetry to speak to Roxanne, and all the while she thinks that Christian is the perfect man. There is an entire scene in which Roxanne is standing on her balcony and Cyrano begins feeding Christian his poetry. It becomes too difficult so Cyrano takes over speaking to Roxanne, and because it is so dark, she thinks it is Christian and decides to kiss him.
Not only are Christian and Cyrano vying for Roxanne’s love, she has also caught the eye of the rich Comte de Guiche. After Christian’s speech to Roxanne, she breaks Cyrano’s heart and asks him to distract de Guiche while she and Christian get married. De Guiche finds out and sends Christian and
Cyrano to the front lines of France’s war with Spain. Roxanne asks that Christian write his words of love to her every day and Cyrano agrees. The ending is a bizarre twist of fate that only those who see it will know about.
“I hope and believe that they [the students] really like the action and fall in love with the great hero, Cyrano,” said Tallon. The students felt differently. Their heads were filled with both high and low expectations.
Ashley Tomaier, a sophomore in the college of Health Sciences, said, “I didn’t expect it to be good at all.” Pete Lindley, a sophomore in the college of Business, said, “I had pretty high expectations after seeing the Cyrano episode of Wishbone.”
However, to the surprise of most, Cyrano was a hit. Everyone was eating it up, but for many different reasons. The humor of the play came as a surprise to Maggie Homer, a sophomore in the college of Health Sciences, who said that it was nothing like what she had expected from a tragedy.
Emma Cotter, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, thought its message was particularly relevant to college life.
“I liked how the topics were relatable to us,” said Cotter. “Using topics like jealousy, self-consciousness and romance is a great way to cater to college students.”
The actors made it easy for the audience to fall in love with the characters. Kara Foster, a sophomore in the college of Arts and Sciences, said, “The actors brought a lot of dimensions to the characters.”
“I was pretty impressed,” said Sulaiman Al-Saeed, a sophomore in the college of Business. Al-Saeed said the actors used the space very well for such a small stage.
But one of its highest selling points was simply the fact that it was a French play. Kelsey McCusker, a sophomore in the college of Communication, said, “It’s a very ‘French Pride’ sort of play and I love that.”
The play ended with a death, a discovery, a hero and a standing ovation. All and all, for most, this play turned out to be a good use of two hours and 56 minutes on a Tuesday night.
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