THE BACKWATER OF THE SOUTHWEST COMES OUT OFTHE SHADOWS
Say the word “Bergerac” and one image comes to mind: A swordsman, with a very big nose is hiding behind a bush. This is Cyrano de Bergerac as imagined in the play of the same name by Edmond Rostand in 1897. He is in love with the beautiful Roxanne, but because of his nose and his awkward, country-bumpkin manners, he cannot bring himself to woo her. Instead, he will help his friend Christian win the beautiful maiden, by supplying his handsome, youthful friend with verse, who will in turn spout them up to the balcony to an impassioned Roxanne, who is suitably impressed. “Tis well known, a big nose is indicative of a soul affable, and kind, and courteous,” says Cyrano of himself. The play is a gentle tragedy of sorts, of love unrequited and nobleness in excess of the common, and it is entirely fiction.