Cyrano

by Virginia Gay, Edmond Rostand

Cyrano is the most interesting person in any room – a wordsmith, a charmer. She works twice as hard and runs twice as fast as the pretty boys, because she's deeply ashamed of something about herself.

Enter brilliant and beautiful, with a penchant for poetry and a way with words, just like Cyrano. But Roxanne only has eyes for hot, manly Yan, who is dumbstruck around Roxanne. (Probably shy, right?) Until suddenly he starts saying the most amazing things. But it's not Yan writing these perfect love scenes, it's Cyrano...

A joyous, gender-flipped retelling of Edmond Rostand's classic play, Cyrano is a love letter to hope; to language and desire; to the lo-fi magic of theatre.

This big-hearted, irreverent queer-as-hell rom-com was first performed by Melbourne Theatre Company in 2022. A new production, directed by Clare Watson and produced by Roast Productions, was a hit at the Traverse Theatre during the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning a Fringe First Award, before transferring to Park Theatre, London.

137 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 19, 2024

Reviews

[theo (whoops didn’t realise this hadn’t changed) · Rating 5 out of 5]

favourite play of all time - saw it at the fringe and loved it so much i had to buy and read the playscript in one sitting, and then immediately read and reread it. so clever and well done, and plays with the medium of theatre and its own choices perfectly - cyrano is so painfully relatable, and the way they play with their gender and discuss it is so important to me. fleshing out yan and roxanne, and leaning into calling out how fucked cyrano de bergerac is is done so well. and the chorus!!!! incredible. god i want to stage this but also i would want to play cyrano and that’s never happening

[Debbie Cannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply perfect. Gorgeous writing.