Cyrano de Bergerac, Northern Stage, Newcastle

WRITTEN by French author, Edmond Rostand in 1897, Cyrano de Bergerac is creatively translated by Anthony Burgess and given a hearty blood transfusion by Northern Stage in collaboration with Northampton’s Royal and Derngate Theatre.

Director, Lorne Campbell and designer Jean Chan have charged the characters of this tragic love story with an edgy newness, while retaining both the vision and rhythm of a time long past. The setting for this tragic love story is a gymnasium where plays are performed for the soldiers’ distraction.

Everyone loves the heroic Cyrano, except Cyrano himself. He’s secretly in love with the beautiful Roxane, a truly stunning performance from Cath Whitfield, but he thinks his ugliness, in the form of a huge red nose, is a joke that makes him totally unlovable.

Nigel Barrett’s Cyrano, the swashbuckling soldier with the skill of a poet, has moments of pure lyrical brilliance, spoiled only a little in the first half by short bouts of gabbling. It’s as if he’s been told to speed up to chop a few minutes off the first half. Tthankfully he settles into his character as he woos the woman he loves through another. That significant other is slow-witted Christian (Chris Jared) who has the Beckham appeal, lacks the wit and lexical dexterity to impress Roxane.

I did rather love George Potts’ egg-and-bacon pie humour as De Quiche and the panache of John Paul Connolly’s performances of Le Bret and Ligniere. A tad too long and heavy with the swag of unrequited love - a nose job would have surely saved the day.

* Runs until May 16. Box Office: 0191-230-5151or northernstage.co.uk

Helen Brown