Feature photo: J. Hernandez, Daniel Miller and Erica Lynn Bridge by Linda Johnson
Martin Crimp’s hilarious and heartbreaking adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac is currently on stage at Quintessence Theatre. The company also recently announced an extension to the show, adding five more performances and will now close on October 27th. Reserved tickets start at $50, and multiple discounts are available, including day-of RUSH tickets for $10. Premium seats are available starting at $60.
Below, Philadelphia’s J Hernandez, in the titular role, talks more about his character and story which is considered one of the world’s one hundred greatest plays.
Q: How is this production’s character of Cyrano different from other adaptations? What makes him unique?
A: What makes Crimp’s character of Cyrano different from other translations out there, while he loves words, they’re easier for a modern 2020s audiences to understand. The eloquence is still present, but this Cyrano cuts through (for lack of a better word) the flowery/ornate language of previous versions and in the heat of it gets right to the point so that there’s absolutely no confusion. No meaning or message is lost, he says exactly what he feels when he feels it (even if he has to use the guise of a rival suitor). In other ways, I believe him to be a lot more volatile. The self-loathing is so much more present here in Crimp’s Cyrano, he’s quicker to anger, and equally quicker to sadness, all coming from his insecurity and fear of rejection, which I think makes for a more interesting, much more fully fleshed character all around.
Q: Playwright Martin Crimp is described as “in-yer-face”… how does this apply to his Cyrano de Bergerac?
A: Hahaha! While the expression may sound cliche, ‘This isn’t your (insert older family member’s title here) Cyrano.’, it doesn’t make it any less true. No lies, the play can get vulgar. Profane, even. It’s confrontational. It’s loud, too loud at times. It becomes something that you can’t ignore. For an American audience, some may like it, some might not, and that’s totally fine, the challenge isn’t for everybody. Even when we look at Cyrano when it was originally conceived, a lot of folks forget that it was written in the late 1890s, Rostand is NOT a contemporary of Shakespeare, even though some people may think it. This was at the time when Strindberg, Ibsen, and Chekhov were booming with their biggest modern day, naturalistic titles … then you have Cyrano. A play that takes place in the 1640s, with absolutely no unity of place or time, a wild swashbuckling piece in comparison to what other playwrights were putting out at the time. There’s something to be said here with a piece that was already adventurous for its time, taken to that next step in brashness for an audience in the 2020s.
Q: Why did you want to be a part of this show?
A: I was talking to Alex Burns (artistic director of QTG) during the Major Barbara cast party last year and I tried to be sly and pitch him a Richard III, to which he said something along the lines of ‘No way would I want to do that one on its own, it’s like I’d be giving our audiences the third sequel to a story they’ve never seen before.’ Which I totally agreed with, history plays are VERY tricky when they’re taken out of context. Then he said, ‘We’ve been thinking of possibly producing Cyrano.’ and immediately my face lit up. We started rapping about Crimp’s Cyrano and how much we loved the translation, so it was a terrific feeling knowing that we both had a wild enthusiasm for the play itself. I can’t even say that I ‘wanted’ to do it, I know this is going to sound super-duper weird, but I had this immense desire and straight up freakin’ need to do it after I read it the first time. It wasn’t a ‘I can do this.’ it was more of a ‘I NEED TO DO THIS.’ I love the story, I love the play, I love the character, and it’s, without explanation, just this burning impetus, something that I had in me that was dying to come out. Comedy, tragedy, love, death, laughing, crying, and swordplay all wrapped up into one neat package. Plus, I freakin’ love working with Alex and QTG, we’ve had a working relationship since 2018, and I always jump at the opportunity to come back to my theatrical home here in Mt. Airy.
Q: What do you love about Cyrano? Is there anything you learned from playing this character?
A: I accepted very early on in my career that I’m not a hero, nor am I the hero type. I’ve never played Romeo, Hamlet, or Henry V in full realized productions, given my age now, I never will. Cyrano, on the other hand, while still marked with the title of a ‘hero’, at least for me, still, is not your typical hero. This is what excites me and what I absolutely love about him. While he’s made up of uncompromising morals, duty, honor, self-sacrifice, there’s room in his being for less than noble intentions, and, really what it all stems from is his need and desperation to love and to be loved in return. I think it’s something we can all relate to. Everybody has flaws and insecurities and that’s what I live for in every character I have the opportunity to play.
Q: What has the audience reception been like so far? What do you hope they take away from this performance?
A: Audience reception has been terrific so far! Give or take some audience members’ reactions to the (at times) crude language. Given the nature of the play, even with the peculiar beast that’s the original Cyrano, you never know when they’re gonna laugh, but you DEFINITELY know when they’re gonna cry. Audiences are going to leave with their own thoughts on love and the meaning of what is actually beautiful in this world and what defines beauty, I wish I could find something deeper to say here, but what I SERIOUSLY hope they take away from this play is that going to the theatre is still fun. Theatre is still an escape. While we as artists want to stimulate intellectual conversation and high ideas of translations of French texts from the 1890s, we as theatre makers are also here to make you feel good, it’s that old Aristotillean rule, we want to educate AND entertain. Theatre does it like no one else and we do it LIVE.
Q: The theme of this year’s season at Quintessence is “Dangerous Passions”. Why does Cyrano fit into that theme?
A: The way Cyrano goes about navigating the way he gives and receives love is incredibly dangerous and equally heartbreaking. The desperation, the need he has to fill this hole within himself, his obsession with love, with words, his undying need to communicate with Roxane even if it’s in the guise of another man’s affections, so much so that it reads like an addiction … and like any addiction or dependency, it can never lead to anything good, only heartache and despair.
Tickets to Cyrano can be purchased here. Additional dates include Thursday, October 24th at 7 pm, Friday, October 25th at 7:30 pm, Saturday, October 26th at 2 pm and 7:30 pm, and Sunday, October 27th at 3 pm. Events during this production include: Special Guest Convo (Oct. 13), Industry Night (Oct. 17), and Teen Night (Oct.18).
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