I’d never read ‘Cyrano’ before seeing the National Theatre Live production with James McAvoy in the title role, but the James Crimp version was so compelling and intriguing that I thought I’d give it a try. I cannot say it would have been an easy read without the production in my mind, steeped as it is in a late 19th-century idealization of a 17th-century poet-soldier. But, like Shakespeare’s works, Rostand wrote a history play for his own times, rich with ideas about the body and its needs, the soul and its desires, and how one makes peace with a world that in general cares little for the individual. There’s lots of think about in Cyrano’s unrequited love for Roxane, his friendship with Christian, and his “panache.”