- Beginning with this posting, I am abandoning the $ rating system I was using. It was an effort to do something different (or abnormal, if you will). It didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped once it got outside my head. I didn't want to go to the 5-star system (very popular on Netflix), or the Highly Recommended, Recommended and Somewhat Recommended ratings that are being used regularly by the newspapers. I'm not going to "Somewhat Recommend" a show that stinks, only because it's the lowest negative rating. I'm not one who frequents the world of Political Correctness (really?), which seems to be what they are doing. So, I'll just continue to tell you what I thought, warn you of what you're going to get, good or bad, and then tell you if I thought it was worth the price of admission. It will keep things more on point.
- The "hit" meter has been moving at a really rapid pace. My ego thinks you love me, or just find me curious enough to warrant a look. That's what egos are for. I'm wondering, though, if it's because people are just going on to see if I posted anything new. If so, you can send me your e-mail address and I can put it on the list for alerts that tell you there's something new to read. I send out alerts to about 70 folks right now, and then Craig Gustafson's Theatre List. Sometimes, it takes a while for his notice to be approved. And I post on NICOTH, but I'm not sure if anyone actually goes there anymore. So, if you want to know right away (and really, who wouldn't) that there is something new to read, send a request to wjbreviews@gmail.com and I'll put you on the distribution list.
- I think it's time to open this topic up to discussion - What is community theatre? Is it only all-volunteer organizations? 501c3 groups? Is a small storefront theatre in Chicago in the Edgewater community considered community theatre? The actors are not paid. They are 501c3. Are they local theatre? Is there a difference? Anyway, starting with the next review, which will be Tommy at Theatre On The Hill in Bolingbrook, I'd like to get people's thoughts on that concept. Because Tommy was not on the same plane as community/local theatre, as I define it. It was more like watching a The Who tribute band combined with an ill-conceived park district dance recital. I'll talk more about it in the review.
Now, let's get to the Cyrano de Bergerac critique:
I was really looking forward to this show. I'm a big fan of the play. The storyline is a classic, and you see it being used constantly in films and television. Even Mr. Magoo took a stab at this. For a synopsis, go here. It was written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand, a French poet and dramatist. The title page and director's notes in the program refer to him as Edmund. The guy died in 1918, so he won't be complaining that Summer Place Theatre got his name wrong. It's not the only error. The director, David Lindley, thinks that the original play was written in Alexandrine verse. In actuality, it was in a format similar to Alexandrine, but lacked an important element called caesura. If you're really curious about this French literary minutia, or need something to lull you to sleep, you can go here for more information.
The play has undergone many translations into English, the most notable being the 1923 free verse form by Brian Hooker. Hooker was faithful to the words of Rostand, but not to his spirit. Rostand was a comedic playwright. While Cyrano de Bergerac is his best known work, his first play was Les Romanesques, a burlesque that was adapted into The Fantasticks. In an effort to match the words of Rostand, Hooker took away the whimsy of the poetry, ultimately stripping away the humor. Rostand called his play a heroic comedy. The Hooker version, widely accepted as THE English translation, is not all that amusing or fanciful. In fact, Hooker did not use the word panache in his translation, because there was no English word to capture its meaning.
Enter Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, who was commissioned to translate the play in 1970 for a theatre production in Minneapolis which was going to star Christopher Plummer. He returned to the Alexandrine-like format, throwing in some prose, a bit of free verse and playful couplets, all in an attempt to return the humor to the heroic comedy. He used the word panache (literally translates to plume), not just as Cyrano's final word as written by Rostand, but also interjects it creatively throughout the play to give it the many connotations for which it was intended. He infused funny back into the play. Unfortunately, David Lindley found a way of sucking the funny back out by not recognizing what he had.
As a critic, if something is not right with the show, you have to know to whom you should direct the criticism. Was it the actor just not doing a good job, or was it the director who, as they say, screwed the pooch? Because the entire show was devoid of the humorous tenor of the script, Mr. Lindley should bear the brunt of the blame for this languid production.
Yes, Tony Kortas' portrayal of Cyrano lacked fire of any kind: no smoldering embers of his secret passion during the scene outside Roxanne's balcony, no zeal in his bravado when he meets his men at the bakery, no intimidating fervor in his stature when he enters a room, no flicker of light during the playful, comedic moments during the "nose" and "no" monologues. I felt he was trying to fill up the theatre with his voice, which turned it into acting "at" us and not "for" us, with a little shouting thrown at us since he starts high and has no where to go. The rhythms from the lyrics of the poetry, and the softer moments of human frailty were ultimately lost. You can say the same, though, for most of the cast.
There was no chemistry between Roxanne (Lisa Barber), Christian (Tin Penavic) and Cyrano. I didn't believe a thing Penavic said as Christian, and Barber's Roxanne seemed brutish and harsh and hardly the object of desire. Ensemble members milled about aimlessly, speaking their lines with no understanding of the text. Of particular note was Anthony Berg's slow-moving and lethargic Gascony guard and Larry Lipskie's various ensemble roles. One member was playing everything to his siblings (it appeared), who giggled at everything he did, which egged him on to be even more distracting during the Arras scenes. The overall pace was slow, and the lines needed to snap. Many times, the performers needed to give way to the beats of the poetry. In an effort to not get caught up in the rhyme scheme, they bulldozed their way through the words, and lost the subtlety of the text. Because of this lack of understanding of this script, the lassitude crept its way into all of the scenes, no matter who was on stage. This is symptomatic of poor direction.
David Lindley was given a gift with the Burgess script, a wonderful thrust theatre stage with lots of electronic toys and live actors. He just didn't know how to use them wisely. Alas, the show had no panache.
Run time: 2 hours 20 minutes
I paid $14.33 (I bought the season pass since I'm coming back for their next two shows, Lend Me A Tenor and Sweet Charity).
It was NOT worth the price of admission.
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