Theatre Clwyd Announce All-Welsh Cast of CYRANO DE BERGERAC

Theatr Clwyd Artistic Director Tamara Harvey today announces the full casting for Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac which also features new Welsh poetry from Twm Morys. Steffan Rhodri leads the all-Welsh company in the role of Cyrano, with Sara Lloyd-Gregory as Roxanne and Marc Rhys as Christian, alongside Wayne Cater, Steven Elliott, Victoria John, Rhys Parry Jones, Daniel Llewelyn-Williams, Gwawr Loader, Sion Pritchard, Aled Pugh, Simon Holland Roberts and Dafydd Llyr Thomas.

Tamara Harvey said today, "I am extremely proud to announce an all-Welsh company for our new production of Cyrano de Bergerac and delighted to be welcoming back so many actors who will be familiar to Clwyd audiences, led by Clwyd-trained Phillip Breen. It's also a great privilege to have additional poetry from acclaimed poet and musician Twm Morys, which, spoken in the Welsh language, will provide a new dimension to this classic play."

Cyrano de Bergerac, soldier, fighter, lover, and prodigious wordsmith, is desperately in love with Roxanne - but he's got the biggest nose that anyone has ever seen. Christian is beautiful in every aspect, he too loves Roxanne, but he's taciturn, tongue-tied, dumbstruck, in Roxanne's presence he cannot find the words. With Christian's looks and Cyrano's poetry the two set about wooing her as the perfect lover. But for Roxanne is this all too good to be true? After all, what is more important in a man, his body or his soul? What happens when there aren't words for the very thing you want to say? And what happens when you lose yourself in translation?

An all-Welsh company reinterprets this classic of the French language in English, with new Welsh language poetry by Twm Morys. Set in Three Musketeers era Paris, against the backdrop of war, comic and tragic in equal measure, Cyrano de Bergerac is one of the most epic love stories of all time.

Edmond Rostand (1868-1918) was a French poet and playwright. His principal works include Les Romanesques (which was to form the basis for the musical The Fantasticks), La Samaritaine, L'Aiglon and Chantecler.

Writer, screenwriter and composer Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) wrote this adaptation. He is perhaps best known for his dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange.

Twm Morys is a poet and harpist who also writes for television and radio, as well as lyrics, which he sings with his folk-rock group, Bob Delyn a'r Ebillion. After graduating from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, he has worked for BBC Radio Cymru and as a lecturer at Rennes University. In addition to three volumes of poetry (Ofn fy Het, 1995; Eldorado, 1999, with Iwan Llwyd; 2, 2002), Morys has written an important body of essays as columnist for various literary reviews. A son of the writer Jan Morris, he has collaborated with her on the two volumes, Wales, the First Place (Random House, 1982) and A Machynlleth Triad/Triawd Machynlleth (Penguin, 2004). Ein Llyw Cyntaf (Gomer, 2001) is his Welsh adaptation of Jan Morris's novel Our First Leader. Twm Morys is the editor of Barddas, Britain's second best-selling poetry magazine.

Steffan Rhodri returns to Theatr Clwyd to play Cyrano having previously appeared in Mary Stuart, Great Expectations, The Birthday Party, The Crucible, Betrayal, Dealer's Choice, Bedroom Farce and King Lear. His other theatre credits include The Hairy Ape (The Old Vic), The Mentalists (Wyndham's Theatre), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (National Theatre), Goya (Gate Theatre), A Mad World My Masters, Candide (RSC), Posh, Absent Friends (West End), The Kitchen Sink (Bush Theatre), Clybourne Park (Royal Court), Abigail's Party (Hampstead/West End), The Father (Chichester Festival Theatre), Richard II (Ludlow), The Tempest and Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare's Globe). Television credits includes Spilt Milk, Under Milk Wood, Hinterland, A Touch of Cloth, Father Brown, Stella, Gavin and Stacey, Wire in the Blood and Belonging; and film credits include Under Milk Wood, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Submarine, The Big I Am, Ali G Indahouse, Solomon & Gaenor and Twin Town.

Sara Lloyd-Gregory plays Roxanne. Her theatre credits include Sand (The Other Room), The Opportunity of Efficiency, A Provincial Life, Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre Wales) and Dirty, Gifted and Welsh (Dirty Protest and National Theatre Wales). Her television credits include Hinterland, Being Human, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Torchwood, Belonging, Sleep With Me and Parch; and film credits include Under Milk Wood, Get Up and Go, Panda Eyes, The Devil's Vice, Bloody Nora, Little White Lies, A Way of Life and Stopping Distance.

Marc Rhys plays Christian. His recent theatre credits include Dracula (Action to the Word - Arts Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Latitude Festival), A Clockwork Orange (Action to the Word - Norway & Singapore tour), A Child's Christmas in Wales (Wales Theatre Company/Dylan Thomas Centenary Festival 'Dylathon'), Alice in Wonderland (SellaDoor Theatre/Greenwich Theatre), Mission Impossible (Secret Cinema) and The Wish of my Heart (Welsh National Opera). For television, his work includes Stella; and for film, The Two Dogs and Canaries.

Director Phillip Breen returns to Theatr Clwyd where he trained under Terry Hands. For the company, his credits include The Birthday Party, Suddenly Last Summer, Measure for Measure and the world première of Two Princes by Meredydd Barker. Breen also acted as assistant director with Terry Hands on a number of productions. His other theatre work includes Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams for Yukio Ninagawa's Theatre Cocoon in Tokyo, The Shoemaker's Holiday, The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC), True West (Glasgow Citizens Theatre and Tricycle Theatre), Sex With a Stranger (Trafalgar Studios), A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, The Caretaker, The Shadow of a Gunman and The Resistible Rise or Arturo Ui (Glasgow Citizens Theatre), and The Hard Man (Festival City Theatres/Scottish Theatres Consortium).

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