The concept is deliberately anarchic, in that we’re told that the rehearsal period was strictly reduced to four days. Audience members can move, take pictures, or talk if desired, but nobody was distracted enough to speak, other than cheering. Jumbo freezies are also provided gratis, a very nice touch. Fringe Hot Tip for Hot Days: Sit in the middle row if you can the sun encroaches on the front row, and the back row has a tent-obscured view of the balcony, which features in a few key scenes. The audience sits under a small tent on the front lawn of 74 Jones Avenue, near Dundas. This is a relaxed production that doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet still largely delivers a self-assured theatre experience. I love site-specific shows that work despite and because of their limitations, and this production of Cyrano is a winning use of the form. The story is probably familiar: the setting is not. Heartbroken, he agrees to provide the words for the other man’s wooing. He’s brilliant in battle and with words, but she falls for a simpler man with a beautiful face. A deeply proud man, with a famously long nose, desires a woman. Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand’s classic romantic tragedy of false identity, is given a truncated treatment by The Leslieville Players at the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival.
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