Virginia Gay, the acclaimed Australian actress, writer, and director, is set to premiere her reimagined classic, Cyrano, at the Edinburgh Fringe as part of TRAVFEST.
This joyous, gender-flipped retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac is packed with music, wit, and aching romance, offering a fresh and contemporary take on the timeless story. Cyrano explores themes of human connection, overcoming loneliness, and the irrepressible magic of theatre. Written during the isolation of the pandemic, Virginia Gay’s Cyrano is a love letter to live performance and the transformative power of art and poetry.
Cyrano will be performed at Traverse 1 from August 1st to 25th (excluding Mondays). Tickets are available now.
Can you tell us a bit about you and your career so far?
I am a tall, blonde Australian who thought she was made for the stage then accidentally became a tv person, and has been working her way back to stage ever since. For years, I was a fake nurse on tv (our Holby City equivalent called All Saints – not the clothes) and a fake lawyer (an Aussie Sex And The City called Winners and Losers – I was the Miranda) and a fake cop (Savage River on Paramount Plus) which is the full trifecta of TV Lady Jobs, so you’re allowed to shout ‘bingo’ at me if you see me in the street. I won a bunch of awards for playing Calamity Jane onstage in Australia. I am absolutely thrilled to play a Total Nightmare Human in season two of Colin From Accounts – watch out for all my awful hats.
What is your show about?
It’s a hot, funny retelling of Cyrano, with a female lead. It’s about a person who thinks they’re unlovable because of something about their body, even though they’re the most interesting person in the room. It’s about how sometimes a crush makes you do terrible, terrible things. It’s about how life can (and should) be filled with sex and jokes and poetry, and how much courage it takes to jump the tracks of an old narrative and try to get to a happy ending. It’s about the exquisite, and sometimes exquisitely awful feeling of getting a good yearn on.
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What was the inspiration for Cyrano and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?
I saw the Jame MacAvoy/NT production and was blown away, and knew I wanted to play the role (hideous actor-y talk, sorry), but when I went back in for the second half, I had forgotten that the original is a tragedy and everybody dies. EVERYBODY. Fucken ‘ell. We’d just been through so much tragedy with the pandemic, and there’s so much tragedy still everywhere in the world, I wanted to offer us a bit of hope. A tiny little scrap of optimism. Also, I don’t wanna be part of story-telling that says queer love is impossible, so we had to find a way to get away from the original ending – I took the proto-rom-com set up of the first half and went to town.
What made you want to take Cyrano to the Fringe?
The fringe is about theatre at its most lean, its most lo-fi, and its most magical. It’s where everything is done on a budget, on a whim and a prayer, but it, somehow, works. It’s the perfect place for a show about how you rethink a show – a show that celebrates what theatre can do.
Apart from seeing Cyrano, what’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer?
The fringe runs on personal recommendations and word of mouth. Ask everybody you meet what they loved seeing. See people you’ve never heard of because somebody told you excitedly that they were incredible. Join the longest queue you can find without knowing what it’s for, and make friends in that queue. See the late night stuff. See the stuff in basements. See raves in churches. Go in with an open heart and open mind and comfortable shoes. Drink beer like it’s water, but also DRINK WATER and remember to eat some vegetables (occasionally). Smile at the people you’re sharing tables and queues and gutters with and make life-long friends and start love affairs. Use protection. Call your mum. Remember when the last bus leaves to get you home. Thanks for trying some art you’ve never heard of. It makes our goddamn day.
Why should people book Cyrano?
Because it’s hot and funny and strange and beautiful. Because it’s about how simple, and simultaneously, how fucking breathtaking theatre can be. It’s a great show to take a date to, ‘cos of the hot and funny thing – I can’t guarantee that you’ll get laid afterwards, but we’ll give you as much help as we possibly can … 🤷♀️
When and where can people see Cyrano?
We’re on at Traverse 1, with a floating schedule, which means we’re on at a different time every day. This will be impossible for my tiny brain to remember, and I can guarantee you there will be at least one day when I have totally misremembered the time and will be screaming in at the five-minute call, and that that will be a THRILLING show for everybody involved. Don’t you wanna see that show?? Yeah, you do…
