Cyrano’s 30th anniversary season opens on Feb. 4th with comedy 'Fallen Angels'

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, Cyrano’s Theater Company enters 2022 with cautious optimism. After an 18-month hiatus, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, they successfully performed Ripcord live in November with amplified safety measures and mandated protocols to protect the audience.

Cyrano ticket holders must show proof of vaccination at the door as well as wear a mask. These requirements were welcomed as patrons thanked the company and expressed how it made them feel safe to return to watch live theater. And, this was further confirmed as the community turned out for the revival of live theater in Anchorage in November. To ensure access for those who were not comfortable or had not been vaccinated, a live stream option was available for home or office viewing.

“What I learned most during the pandemic is our community believes in us and supports what we are doing. It thrilled me to my toes. I am honored and humbled.” said Teresa Pond, Producing Artistic Director.

Opening on the evening of February 4, for a four-week run, Cyrano’s offers Anchorage residents fifteen performances of Noël Coward’s comedy ‘Fallen Angels’.

Written in 1923 and first performed in 1925, Fallen Angels emerged from the global crises of WWI and the influenza pandemic. After nearly forty million died during WWI, five hundred million people caught influenza with as many as one-tenth dying from the illness. The stark realities of war and global illness were soon replaced with the roaring 20s post-war jazz age which ushered in a rejection of and escape from the doom and gloom of the 1910s.

As part of this renaissance, novels of the time such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and theater works such Noël Coward’s Fallen Angel challenged contemporary morality of the time.

Fallen Angels centers on two married friends — Julia Sterroll (Katy Lawrence) and Jane Banbury (Maddy Klever) — who both had pre-marital affairs with the same lover, Maurice Duclos (Charlie Cardwell). Sterroll and Banbury receive a postcard from Duclos who will be returning to London soon. As the play unfolds, both reflect on their past love and consider an extramarital adulterous affair.

Fallen Angels, which opened on April 21, 1925, at the Globe Theater in London, ran for 158 performances, closing on August 29. Initially, due to the adulterous innuendo, the intoxication of the main female characters, and pre-marital sexual content, it had difficulty gaining approval from the office of Lord Chamberlain, the theater censor on the grounds the performance “would cause too great a scandal.” Moreover, the Public Morality Council campaigned against the play attempting to get their license revoked, calling it “a revolting sex-play.”

Theatrical works had to obtain a license passing censorship review ever since 1737 when the British Parliament passed the “The Licensing Bill” which created the Office of the Examiner of Plays.

Many readers will concur with Coward’s societal observation, “it’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”

As part of the women’s suffrage centennial, Fallen Angels was initially scheduled to be performed in 2020. Much like the original, it opens after the height of a global pandemic offering a live audience a night out for therapeutic laughter.

Tickets are now available at Centertix. Prices are $30 and $27 for seniors, military, and students. Students and members of the military should show their ID.