With ‘Cyrano,’ James McAvoy Is Savoring a ‘Purer Form of Storytelling’
The New York Times
The actor will be making his New York stage debut with Jamie Lloyd’s Olivier Award-winning production, coming in April to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
LONDON — In a cozy upstairs bar at the Harold Pinter Theater here, the actor James McAvoy was talking about ritual sacrifice. The offering in question was him.
Night after night, on the stark set of Jamie Lloyd’s Olivier Award-winning production of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” McAvoy has no period plumes or prosthetics to hide behind as he plays the title role. He’s even shaved off his floppy hair, buzzed close to the scalp in a sculptural fade — a sleeker look than the smooth bald pate of his “X-Men” character Charles Xavier, and a lot more military.
“I’ve always felt like theater is slightly sacrificial,” McAvoy, 42, was saying in his Scottish burr. “I think the first plays were probably some kind of sacrifice, be it animal or food-based or human even. The community coming together to watch somebody give of themselves — I feel like theater has its roots in that somewhere.”
