FAMOUS FRENCH PLAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 March 1939, Page 8

FAMOUS FRENCH PLAY

PRESENTATION AT NATIONAL

THEATRE.

It has taken forty-one years for “Cyrano de Bergerac,” the late Edmond Rostand’s play, which marked a turning point in the history of the French stage, to reach the boards oi the Comedia Francaise, France’s national theatre. This is not because that theatre failed to recognise the value of the play, but because of difficulties beyond its control. The famous lyrical drama now goes into the repertory with the plays of Moliere, Racine, de Musset and Victor Hugo. Cyrano de Bergerac was recognised as a masterpiece from the very first performance at the Theatre St. Martin. on the Boulevards, in 1897. It is a five-act drama in verse, in which the Musketeer hero, suffering from the disfigurement of an abnormally big nose, writes the inspired love letters of a handsome, admirable but unimaginative comrade who has won the love of beautiful Roxanne. In the deepening twilight of a garden scene, it is Cyrano who pours forth impassioned words of love, but his companion who climbs to the balcony to receive the awarded kiss. In the final scene, when years have passed, Roxanne, a widow, learns the truth from Cyrano’s dying lips. France went wild over the play. Everyone was reciting the impassioned verses. On one occasion, the creator of Cyrano, Benoit Constant Coquelin, paying the part for the third time in twenty-four hours, was so tired that-he left our four lines. A spectator rose from his seat in the stalls and called out angrily, “The text, Monsier, stick to the text.” The famous actor went back and gave the four missing lines in magnificent style, to make up for the omission, saluted by a roar of applause. Cyrano de Bergerac has been translated into over twenty languages and played in every country in the world. Sir Charles Wyndham played the title role in tjie English version at the Criterion Theatre, London. ■ln Paris it has reached its 2216th performance.