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characters that are meant to be sympathetic
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servalan this evening to see Cyrano de Bergerac at the Oxford Playhouse. I'd say the production was a notch above workmanlike -- not bad, but not going to win any awards, you know. The ensemble was fine, a couple of the lesser leads were pretty good, Cyrano and Christian were almost excellent.
And the girl playing Roxane was very good as well, don't get me wrong. It's just that I have never seen a production of this play (in French or English, on stage or screen) that hasn't made me want to wring Roxane's neck for being criminally oblivious.
servalan pointed out that a lot of the blame belongs with Cyrano and Christian, as well, for doing such a good job at hiding the truth from her. Which I suppose is true. She also pointed out that it sucks more than just a little bit that Cyrano finally tells Roxane the truth only when he knows he's about to die, which is certainly true.
So okay -- Cyrano gets a smack as well, because, as I said tola_rainette just now, there's only so stoic you can be before you start losing sympathy. I therefore discard "poor Roxane" and "poor Cyrano" (though this would be an excellent name for a play, or a book, or a band) in favor of poor Christian, who is the least responsible for his own suffering of any of the top three characters in this thing.
But somehow I still do feel sorrier for Cyrano than I do for Roxane. OPEN YOUR EYES, WOMAN! I always want to say to her. And then, YOU DON'T DESERVE WHAT YOU WON'T OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE.
RAR.
servalan this evening to see Cyrano de Bergerac at the Oxford Playhouse. I'd say the production was a notch above workmanlike -- not bad, but not going to win any awards, you know. The ensemble was fine, a couple of the lesser leads were pretty good, Cyrano and Christian were almost excellent.And the girl playing Roxane was very good as well, don't get me wrong. It's just that I have never seen a production of this play (in French or English, on stage or screen) that hasn't made me want to wring Roxane's neck for being criminally oblivious.
servalan pointed out that a lot of the blame belongs with Cyrano and Christian, as well, for doing such a good job at hiding the truth from her. Which I suppose is true. She also pointed out that it sucks more than just a little bit that Cyrano finally tells Roxane the truth only when he knows he's about to die, which is certainly true.So okay -- Cyrano gets a smack as well, because, as I said to
la_rainette just now, there's only so stoic you can be before you start losing sympathy. I therefore discard "poor Roxane" and "poor Cyrano" (though this would be an excellent name for a play, or a book, or a band) in favor of poor Christian, who is the least responsible for his own suffering of any of the top three characters in this thing.But somehow I still do feel sorrier for Cyrano than I do for Roxane. OPEN YOUR EYES, WOMAN! I always want to say to her. And then, YOU DON'T DESERVE WHAT YOU WON'T OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE.
RAR.