In the fall of 2014, Gabriel Sabourin had created The prince of enjoyers, a tribute to Feydeau based on biographical elements and constructed in the manner of a vaudevillist. His new creation gets somewhat the same treatment for the author of Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand. The comedian-playwright is not the first to make it his muse – we think of Alexis Michalik. But where the French work Edmund mainly recounted the epic creation of the famous play in 1897, the spectacle of the Green Curtain transports us before the writing of this one, imagining how Rostand could have found inspiration for it.
In Pif-Glossy — apparently the author’s nickname at school… — the melancholy Rostand, instead of exercising his profession as a lawyer, accumulates failures with his plays, which he persists in composing in alexandrines, which is no longer in vogue. Moreover, this complexed young man – Olivier Morin is decked out on stage with a trumpet nose – is secretly in love with the cook’s daughter (smart Élodie Grenier), to whom he dares not declare himself. She falls in love with a young passing actor, Christian (fiery Jean-François Pronovost). And, amusing wink, it is to this character, who struggles to express himself, that the role of narrator of the story returns in the opening and in the conclusion.
Camped in a setting by Loïc Lacroix Hoy successful in the genre – and recycled from previous productions, bravo! —, the piece therefore reproduces the main frame of Cyrano : his love triangle, and the megaphone scheme. Gabriel Sabourin sprinkles his text with many references to scenes or lines from the original play. There are sometimes ingenious inspirations: the famous flight of “no, thank you!” applied to the practice of law. And the equivalent of the tirade of the nose, which Rostand improvises from a grueling review of one of his works, is one of the successes. But later, we are also entitled to real extracts from the famous monologue itself.
The author does well in this not easy exercise, he rhymes with enough verve — he gave Rostand’s character a mania for rhyming while conversing. The lover of Cyrano will be able to have fun spotting the motifs and phrases inspired — when not outright excerpts — from the great classic. But, even if the entertainment is well shot, we end up, faced with so many borrowings, by wondering what interest there is in a pastiche of a well-known play that does not offer much originality.
As for the rest of the story, which surrounds the central trio, it leaves us wanting more. Pif-Glossy includes a subplot around the butler (played by the author himself), pathologically jealous of his wife (solid Marie-Hélène Thibault), who cannot go shopping without being suspected of cheating — it borders on the controlling husband . If you like cheese jokes…
It must be recognized, however, that Gabriel Sabourin wrote a worthy outcome, which manages to stay in the mold of Rostand’s play while finding a different, lighter resolution. This entertainment also has the merit of offering the talented Olivier Morin the opportunity to play, in a way, a lighter version of Cyrano. As a disenchanted poet and pitiful lover, this very expressive and sensitive actor composes an endearing character.