Cyrano de Bergerac

Kate Hennig

• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780369100177
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

From the acclaimed author of The Last Wife and The Virgin Trial comes a new adaptation of one of the finest love stories ever told.

Cyrano de Bergerac is a swashbuckling seventeenth-century swordsman who can do anything... except tell Roxane, the woman he loves, how he feels. He's just too self-conscious about his unusually large nose. Roxane finds romance in words, and Cyrano is full of them, so when he sees the chance to ghostwrite love letters to her from an inarticulate, love-struck cadet, he takes it—but can he ever reveal himself? Could she ever love him for who he is? In turns funny, tender, and self-aware, this classic tale about the exquisite distress of loving from afar will find its way into the hearts of even the most skeptical.

Acte IV

The oak tree, on a battlefield. The post occupied by the company of Carbon de Castel-Jaloux in the siege of Arras.

A Sentinel is up in the tree keeping watch. The day is about to get up: imperial yellow.

Rolled in their coats, the Cadets of Gascony sleep. Carbon and Le Bret are on watch.

Christian sleeps, among the others, in his cape, his face lit by a fire. Silence.

Scène IV.I

Le Bret

It’s hideous.

Carbon

Nothing less.

Le Bret

J’en ai ral le cul! [(an expletive) I’ve had enough!]

Carbon

Curse quietly! While they’re asleep they forget their hunger.

Le Bret

I’m sick from the gnawing.

We hear faraway shots.

Carbon

Damn the guns. They’ll wake the men.

Closer shots.

Cadet 3 (stirring)

Shit! Again?

Carbon

It’s nothing. It’s Cyrano coming back.

The heads which had got up go back to bed.

Sentinel

Who goes there?

The Voice Of Cyrano

Bergerac.

Sentinel

Hey! Who’s there?

Cyrano (appearing)

Bergerac, imbecile!

Le Bret goes to him, worried.

Le Bret

Good God . . .

Cyrano

Shhh!

Le Bret

Are you hurt?

Cyrano

They’re lousy shots, those Spaniards.

Le Bret

You’re unbelievably stupid to risk your life every day,

Just to carry a letter.

Cyrano (stopping in front of Christian)

I promised he would write often.

(looking at him) Starving. But still beautiful.

Le Bret

Maniac. Go get some sleep.

Cyrano

Don’t grumble, Le Bret. And don’t worry:

I always cross the Spanish ranks at night, when I know they’re drunk.

Le Bret

You should bring us back some food.

Cyrano

It would slow me down.

But things will change soon. We will either eat or die if what I saw is . . .

Le Bret

What did you see?

Cyrano

Not sure. We’ll find out.

Carbon

We are starving, when they are under siege. It’s humiliating.

Le Bret (to Cyrano)

Are you going to rest?

Cyrano

I’m going to write another letter.

Cyrano lifts a tent flap and disappears.

Scène IV.II

The sun is rising...

Table of contents

• A Note on the Text
• Playwright’s Notes
• Characters
• Acte I
• Interlude I
• Acte II
• Acte III
• Interlude II
• Acte IV
• Acte V
• Appendix