Cirrus@Austlit

'SFJ’s winter season brings an exciting venture for the many thousands who heard or read about, but haven’t yet seen our acclaimed production of Cyrano de Bergerac, winner of the 2013 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production. One of the world’s most original and finely crafted romantic comedies; the tale of the beautiful Roxane and the man who would love her, but for his outrageous nose – the play that brought the word ‘panache’ into the English language! Cyrano is a complete theatrical masterpiece.
 

'We are thrilled to announce that off the back of the huge success of Antigone and Of Mice of Men, Canberra Theatre Centre and Illawarra Performing Arts Centre have bought Cyrano for their 2017 seasons and we will bring this exceptional show back for a 2 week run on the big York Theatre stage at the Seymour Centre in June before going on the road. Damien Ryan’s new adaptation of the play won enormous acclaim in 2013 and we are thrilled to bring it to new Australian audiences.
 

CYRANO:
You see it, but you’ll never have this plume,
It soars above the battle’s mud and ash,
It stays with me, one thing…
ROXANE: (kissing him)
            …this!
CYRANO:
                MY PANACHE!

'Cyrano’s ideas and concerns are simply and profoundly human – what does individualism mean and how do we remain faithful to what we believe in? What is love and how do we get past its clichés and false ideals? How does self-esteem define us all our lives? What is beauty? What drives male aggression? What is courage? And for Rostand, it was a passionate condemnation and plea for a France that he felt was losing its soul, its romance and its creativity to return to a more enlightened, brave and individual sense of its identity – its panache.' (Production summary)

'HOW DO THE UNWRITTEN LAWS OF PERSONAL CONSCIENCE SURVIVE WHEN SET AGAINST THE LAWS OF A SOCIETY AND A NATION?

'Antigone is a child of war, like too many in our world. She asked a simple question thousands of years ago that remains too difficult for us to answer even to this day, as so many recent events have demonstrated. What do we do with the body of a terrorist, a murderer, who has brought destruction, death and horror to our community when that terrorist is our brother. Our own flesh and blood?

'Like Hamlet, Joan of Arc, Galileo and Sir Thomas More, Antigone inspires us with her courage, fortitude and impenetrable strength of conscience. But her excess of feeling and fundamentalist zeal are hard to reconcile in a world crying out for unity, order and the rule of law in a time of chaos. Her uncle, Creon, selflessly places his state above the welfare of his family, pursuing a principle with the sort of consistency of will that we cry out for in politicians who so often stand for nothing. Where is justice between these extremes? Antigone stands against the monolith and brings her society to a reckoning it sorely needs.' (Production summary)