Cyrano de Bergerac

First performed in Paris in 1897, Cyrano de Bergerac was an instant sensation and remains the most beloved French play of the modern era. Set in seventeenth-century Paris and the battlefields of the Siege of Arras, it follows Cyrano—a Gascon cadet whose enormous nose masks an even larger soul—as he duels, declaims, and composes poetry mid-swordfight. Secretly in love with his cousin Roxane, he lends his eloquence to the handsome but inarticulate Christian de Neuvillette, ghostwriting the love letters that win her heart. Rostand’s play is at once a comedy of wit, a tragedy of self-sacrifice, and a love letter to language itself. Brian Hooker’s celebrated English verse translation, prepared for the actor Walter Hampden, captures the panache and musicality of the original French alexandrines.