We all know the story of Cyrano de Bergerac -- the poetic swordsman with a huge nose. We've experienced it from time to time second hand -- from satire and copycats. But if you've never experienced Cyrano firsthand, it's time to get to Trinity Rep to see the play yourself.

“I’ve loved this story since I was a kid,” says director Amanda Dehnert, “for two quite different reasons. It brings magic, passion and life into the theater. Even better, it tells us to live life to the fullest, and follow our hearts before we die.”

Cyrano is a soldier and also an excellent poet and writer, and he is also the possessor of an extremely large nose. He has also become an exceptional duelist, as a result of having to defend his honour following insults directed against his nose. Early in the play we see him responding to just such an insult by simultaneously duelling his denigrator and composing a poem describing the duel, winning the duel exactly as the poem comes to its last line (the famous Ballade de duel, in act 1). The entire play is in five acts, each consisting of one scene. The sets for the original production were in the elaborately detailed and highly realistic tradition of stage design favored at the time, so they could not be changed quickly.

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The play, penned in 1897 by Edmond Rostand, concentrates on Cyrano's love for the beautiful Roxane, whom he is obliged to woo on behalf of a more conventionally handsome, but less articulate, friend, Christian de Neuvillette, with whom she is already in love. Trinity Rep company member Mauro Hantman plays the titular soldier, philosopher, and poet. Cyrano loves Roxane, played by Angela Brazil, but cannot tell her. Cursed with an enormous nose, he believes she could never love him. When Roxane falls for Christian, Cyrano sacrifices his own happiness and gives his rival the words to woo the lady he loves.

It takes place during the reign of Louis XIII, when Cardinal Richelieu was waging war against the Spanish in the north of France and Flanders during the Thirty Years' War. The siege of Arras, in which Christian de Neuvillette dies, is a historical event, which took place in 1640. The final fifth act takes place 15 years later, in 1655. You may not realize that Cyrano de Bergerac was a real person. The real Cyrano took part in the siege of Arras at the age of 20.

Novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand called it the "greatest play in world literature." It has been translated and performed many times, and is responsible for introducing the word panache into the English language. The version being produced by Trinity was adapted and translated by Anthony Burgess.

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Amanda Dehnert (Director/Trinity Rep’s acting artistic director) directed this season's opening musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Last season she directed Henry IV and the world premiere of Charles Strouse's You Never Know. Past productions for Trinity include West Side Story; Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience; A Moon for the Misbegotten; Annie; The Skin of Our Teeth; Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up Noises Off; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The New England Sonata; My Fair Lady; Othello; Saint Joan; We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!; and A Christmas Carol (1997). A graduate of the Trinity Rep Conservatory, Ms. Dehnert currently serves on the faculty of the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium. In 2001, she received a Gielgud Fellowship (SDFC) and an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director (My Fair Lady and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?).

The cast is led by Trinity Rep Company member Mauro Hantman (Indoor/Outdoor, The Mystery of Edwin Drood , The Moliere Impromptu) in the title role of Cyrano alongside Company member Angela Brazil (Indoor/Outdoor, The Moliere Impromptu, Noises Off) as the unknowing object of his affections Roxane. Fellow Company members Stephen Berenson (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Moliere Impromptu), Janice Duclos (Hamlet, Moon for the Misbegotten), William Damkoehler (Hamlet, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Henriad), Phyllis Kay (Indoor/Outoor, The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Brian McEleney (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Henriad), Barbara Meek (Suddenly Last Summer, The Henriad), Cynthia Strickland (Suddenly Last Summer; The Beauty Queen of Leenane), and Fred Sullivan, Jr. complete the epic cast with Brown /Trinity Rep Consortium graduate Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium student Noah Brody (The Henriad) as the her brawny yet blunt suitor Christian. Rounding out the cast are Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium students Charlie E. Hudson III, Daniel Mefford, Jordan Reeves.

Tony award-winning resident scenic designer Eugene Lee will be creating the world of the Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1640s – battlefields, bakery, Parisian theater, and Roxane’s immortal balcony. The artistic team also includes William Lane (Costume Designer), Brian J. Lilienthal (Lighting Designer) and Peter Sasha Hurowitz (Sound Designer).

Tickets are on sale now at the Trinity Rep box office, (401) 351-4242 and online at www.trinityrep.com. Regular ticket prices for Trinity Rep’s 42nd Season are $25 for previews, $40 weekdays and $50 weekends. A wide range of discounted tickets are available including $15 rush tickets on sale two hours prior to curtain. Also new this year is a $20 discounted admission for all educators, military, firefighters & police (valid ID required), $10 Bench Seats in the last row of Chace Theater and $15 student tickets (valid ID required). Performances start at 7:00 pm on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and at 8:00 pm on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

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