A quarrelsome, hot-tempered, and unattractive swordsman falls hopelessly in love with a beautiful woman and woos her for a handsome but slow-witted suitor. A witty and eloquent drama.

A genius with language, but convinced of his own ugliness, Cyrano secretly loves the radiant Roxane. While Roxane is in love with the beautiful but inarticulate Christian. Cyrano's generous offer to act as go-between sets in motion a poignant and often hilarious love-triangle, in which each character is torn between the lure of physical attraction and the seductive power of words. Martin Crimp's adaptation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac premiered at the Playhouse Theatre, London, in November 2019.

The nineteenth-century French classic about the swordsman-poet with the nose too large to be taken seriously, in an acclaimed English translation by Anthony Burgess. This translation of Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre, London, in July 1983, with Derek Jacobi as Cyrano. Burgess's translation was subsequently used as the basis of the sub-titles for the 1990 film version of Cyrano de Bergerac starring Gerard Depardieu.

Regarded as one of the greatest dramas ever written, this story of the silver-tongued soldier whose unfortunate looks drive him to woo his love by speaking for his handsome but dull-witted rival is beloved around the world. Revised reissue.

A new version of the classic French romantic comedy from Peter Oswald. Cursed with the looks of a clown, he weaves his secret longing into love letters of exquisite beauty that he will never dare to send. All he needs is a perfect nose to match his perfect prose. The handsome Christian has also fallen for Roxane - but while he looks like a god, he sounds like a fool. Sacrificing physical love for fantasy, Cyrano hands his words of love to Christian to speak for them both. Will Roxane fall for the 'perfect' man? Can Cyrano exist with only half her heart? Is true love more than skin deep?

Tonight When I make my sweeping bow at heaven's gate, One thing I shall still possess, at any rate, Unscathed, something outlasting mortal flesh, And that is ... My panache.'
The first English translation of Cyrano de Bergerac, in 1898, introduced the word panache into the English language. This single word summed up Rostand's rejection of the social realism which dominated late nineteenth-century theatre. He wrote his heroic comedy', unfashionably, in verse, and set it in the reign of Louis XIII and the Three Musketeers. Based on the life of a little known writer, Rostand's hero has become a figure of theatrical legend: Cyrano, with the nose of a clown and the soul of a poet, is by turns comic and sad, as reckless in love as in war, and never at a loss for words. Audiences immediately took him to their hearts, and since the triumphant opening night in December 1897 - at the height of the Dreyfus Affair - the play has never lost its appeal. The text is accompanied by notes and a full introduction which sets the play in its literary and historical context. Christopher Fry's acclaimed translation into chiming couplets' represents the homage of one verse dramatist to another.
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The Communicado Theatre's production of this verse rendering won the Edinburgh Fringe First award at the 1992 Festival, and has gone on to tour Scotland and England in 1992-3. Edwin Morgan provides an introduction, which sets the play in its time and discusses the style of his translation; it aims to provide insight and stimulation to a new generation of readers and playgoers.