Buckle some swash with Taffety Punk
Taffety Punk Theatre Company in DC, the established ensemble-based company known for their creative, thoughtful, always distinctive approach to classic and contemporary theater, returns with another characteristic offering. This time, they have revisited a beloved Romantic chestnut: Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand’s 1897 epic tale of unrequited longing, unshakeable courage, quiet sacrifice, and one oversized proboscis–a play famously filled with wordplay as dazzling as the swordplay.
But this being Taffety Punk, it is a Cyrano unlike any you may have encountered, in frequent revivals or countless films based on the play. Under the leadership of company member, director, and adaptor Lise Bruneau, this production condenses Rostand’s loquacious text and compresses the play’s sprawling cast of characters, so that five actors boldly bring to life the world of 1640s Paris and beyond.
In a further twist, the famed duelist, wordsmith, scientist, philosopher, poet, adventurer, and soldier at the heart of the story–a real-life counterpart to another boastful Gascon famous for his blade and his heart, Dumas’ musketeer D’Artagnan–is played by veteran DC actor Kimberly Gilbert, and played as a woman.
How might this give the company ways to explore additional complications or obstacles on top of those already confronting the titular hero, or new dynamics to enrich already complex relationships, or perhaps add fuel to the fiery loquacity that gets Cyrano into so much trouble?
You can hear what Lise Bruneau had to say about all this and more, as both director and adaptor, here:
This production of Cyrano runs from September 25 through October 11 at Washington’s Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Tickets, location, show information, and more can be found online at Taffety Punk
