There's snout better than directing Lester

For those who don't know the play, can you give us a quick recap of the story? It’s about a man called Cyrano de Bergerac - a soldier, fighter and (most importantly) poet and wordsmith. And he has a big nose.

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Adrian Lester plays the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac

That nose has become the thing that defines him, and his mastery of words becomes a way to defend himself and hide his insecurities.

Another thing he’s hiding are his feelings for his childhood friend, Roxane, who he’s madly in love with. Sadly for Cyrano, Roxane is in love with a younger man called Christian, who has recently joined Cyrano’s army regiment.

Christian tries to seduce Roxane but he’s hopeless with words so, without Roxane knowing, Cyrano volunteers to write love letters for Christian, and even speak for him. All to try to make Roxane happy.

Why did you want to direct this play?

I love the play, and actually directed it once before at the White Bear Theatre in London back in 2014. I keep returning to it, and each time I do, I find something new. It’s a play about someone who is very scared of how the world might see him and is always hiding a part of himself. It's a play about insecurity, about being afraid, about whether you are ever ‘enough’ for somebody, and about being true to yourself. And those are themes that I always get very emotional about and very excited by.

On top of that, I think it’s a play that invites an audience to feel something. I think there’s a lot of theatre out there at the moment that can feel overly knowing, ironic or cynical: afraid to mean what it says, or to really say what it means.