Cyrano (review) – a beguiling poem of unrequited love, a saga and an intimate whisper between two lifelong friends

With such careful consideration to every aspect, both technical and narrative, in the service of emitting an unadulterated celebration of emotion, Joe Wright has crafted a beguiling poem of unrequited love, sprawling out at once like a saga and an intimate whisper between two lifelong friends. Cyrano is now playing in theatres nationwide.

Historical tales of complicated love often have Joe Wright behind them. His triple-threat of Pride & Prejudice, Atonement and Anna Karenina emphasises an evident penchant for the curiously popular literary foible, adored for its sensuality. He captures the delicate sentimentality of passion throughout the ages, adorning much of his work with the label of ‘classic’ in the romantic drama sub-genre. He returns once more with his musical adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, taking everything he’s learned and distilling it into a pure essence of Wrightian romanticism – this might be his masterpiece.

Cyrano’s plot may seem innately familiar, and that’s for good reason. Quick-witted, charming knave Cyrano (Peter Dinklage) has always loved Roxanne (Hayley Bennett). Still, the prejudice around his appearance keeps him from confessing, and he instead reluctantly assists beautiful-but-banal Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) in wooing her so that their words may still find meaning in her heart. Only someone as skilful as Peter Dinklage could perform such a conflict between Cyrano’s charmingly youthful candour, while his eyes cast the gaze of a thousand-year-old soul, the two trapped in the constant battle for the true heart of this lovable rogue. It’s a true crime that Dinklage was locked out of the Best Actor race, as this is one of the best performances of his entire career.

The trio of Dinklage, Bennett and Harrison Jr. is marvellous to watch engage in passionate repartee, sparking such fierce chemistry that one should be wearing safety goggles to watch it unfold on screen. Harrison Jr. and Bennett are undoubtedly set to become the stars of tomorrow, continuing to capture a generation as grippingly as they have here. They dance through playfulness, joy, and melancholy like a simple waltz, flagrantly showing off their incredible talent. It’s often difficult to carve out your own place against such a complexly magnificent lead as Dinklage, but Bennett and Harrison Jr. make it appear like child’s play.

Likewise, Wright has created what can only be described as the ultimate ballad of unrequited love, with such rich sincerity that it beckons to the age of the Romantics as a clear source of influence. He paints his world with such colour: colourful language renders the complicated triage of love bare for us to witness through Cyrano’s puppetry of Christian as an illusory mouthpiece to Roxanne, whilst warm autumnal hues and glowing rays of light allow Sicily’s Noto to glisten incandescently. Entire rooms emanate radiant azures and quiet hazels, the inner sanctum of our troupe’s emotions reflected upon them across the walls, floors, and ceilings.

Snaring The National’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner is an inspired choice, as the composition of strings and percussion ignites the feelings of one’s heart swelling, beating loud and clear for all to hear, betraying your true feelings for the one you love, or perhaps the one you loathe. These are emotional confessions on an operatic scale. Cyrano uses music like humanity uses air, taking it as the very life force on which it survives and thrives. Drawing on Erica Schmidt’s 2018 stage musical, Wright himself strikes a delicate balance between the theatricality he infuses his romantic ballad with and the everyday motions of life, extracting their sensual essence and motion, revealing the innate rhythms of the smallest actions around us.

It’s this very reliance on colour that Wright uses to embark on Cyrano’s darkest and most turbulent moments, often at the hands of Ben Mendelsohn’s De Guiche, the dastardly dressed-up duke with designs on owning Roxanne. All colour appears to drain from Wright’s lens, as though the world itself has been struck into the melancholy shared by Cyrano and Christian as they’re forced into a national conflict, only to find the actual conflict lies within their shared love for one woman. Wright transports us to majestic landscapes of death and morbidity during this time, so bleak that it somehow captures its own beauty, with traces of colour yet to be found, inspiring a glimmer of hope.

With such careful consideration to every aspect, both technical and narrative, in the service of emitting an unadulterated celebration of emotion, Joe Wright has crafted a beguiling poem of unrequited love, sprawling out at once like a saga and an intimate whisper between two lifelong friends. With such confidence in its creativity and vulnerable pathos, this is Joe Wright’s masterpiece.