Word: rostand
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...shows had an impressive line-up of scripters: Euripides, Ibsen, Shaw, Christopher Marlowe, Rostand. They ran from a carefree one hour, one minute (Shaw's Man of Destiny") to an odd one hour, 27 minutes (Euripides' Trojan Women). Producers were from the top BBCrust. The casts were sparked with big British theatrical names...
Cyrano de Bergerac. Attractive revival of Rostand's masterpiece, with José Ferrer as the big-nosed, bright-plumed hero (TIME...
Cyrano de Bergerac (translated from the French of Edmond Rostand by Brian Hooker; produced by Jose Ferrer) drops in on each new generation-Walter Hampden accompanied it in the '20s-as a reminder that high romance once lived in the world, or at any rate in the theater. Brightly tricked out, Cyrano is always welcome, for it offers playgoers the satisfaction of witnessing a "classic" and at the same time reveling in shameless sentiment, noble gestures and high theatrical hokum...
...into the mouth of a handsome dolt, for her sake. The motif is noble, yet it shrinks to the simple moral that it takes more than a sharp tongue, a sharper sword, and a magnificent soul to convince the right woman. This is not sound, inspired drama, nor is Rostand to be rated as a major dramatic poet. But the theatre thrives on striking situations and instantaneous effects, and of these Rostand is the master...
When he made Cyrano's ugliness so prominent, Rostand took a chance on slipping over into the ridiculous. Ferrer's production strikes the delicate balance between pomposity and farce. At rare moments in the comic scenes there is an overstraining after effect, but this can be blamed on the script. It is when Rostand tries to be another Shakespeare or Racine that the play loses its dash. The death of Christian, the puppet lover, and the end of Cyrano himself in a nunnery are on the edge of ennui. Written at a time when audiences liked their melodrama lush...