Excellent teaching tool for drama class

vhs video:

	• Cyrano (Globalstage) [VHS] Belgium Blauw Vier Antwerp Globalstage, 1999 average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Excellent teaching tool for drama class

I am teaching this play in my middle school drama class this semester. After viewing several productions, I chose this videotape. The staging is innovative and clever, the performances are excellent. There are heavy cuts to the text; some of the characters (like the lovable Ragueneau) all but disappear. In this instance I feel it helps focus the play on the central conflict and makes it more accessible for my students. There are still a number of secondary characters who show up, most of them doubled skillfully by the actor who plays Christian.

Most remarkable is the fact that Cyrano's character is played without the customary prosthetic nose. This underlines the point of the slightly cheesy narration framing the play - that Cyrano is ugly only because he staunchly refuses to see himself otherwise. The actor playing him is actually quite attractive and without the distraction of a costume-shop nose we can see the full range of Cyrano's emotions. I think this point is taken to heart by young teenagers who so often feel awkward and unslightly in spite of their best attributes.

I disagree with one point in the critic's reveiw above. Although the actors speak with very little accent, some words do get lost in the clipped pace of speech that opens the play. I don't think that should phase most folks - it doesn't take long for the ear to adjust.

This was a most enjoyable production, useful not only in studying Rostand's play but also for classes in mime, physical character development, monologue study and staging techniques. I bought the tape for my department library, but plan to order another for myself. I only wish it was available on DVD as I plan to watch it again and again.

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Like the other videos in the Globalstage series (which offers various worldwide theatrical productions), this Cyrano is richly layered, offering many avenues of discussion for viewers young and old. The Belgian theater company, Blauw Vier, offers up a fresh rendering of Edmond Rostand's classic story of Cyrano, who believes he is too unattractive to win the heart of his beloved Roxanne and helps a rival win her through Cyrano's own words of Love. Through the inspired performances of only three actors (whose accents are slight enough not to distract a young audience), the play and characters come alive. Using miming instead of props (with the actors providing sound effects), this well-done, inventive production tells a powerful and still timely tale: if one doesn't believe in one's self, neither will anyone else. This is the message that Professor Elizabeth McNamer repeatedly expresses to her "charge," Preston (Preston Blakely), in their segments that frame the play. McNamer walks the sweet but stiff Preston through Antwerp, discussing the historical significance of their surroundings. It's a nice complement to the actual play and will likely encourage a young audience to research the locale as well as the original work. --N.F. Mendoza

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