Contemporary rock music combined with a classic play makes “Cyrano” a unique modern day love story.

Cyrano combines the present with the 1640s and has a cast of three students, each providing their own sound effects.

Quentin Crump, Nora “Rose” Burnstad and Scott Freeman are the entire cast. The original stage adaptation had more than 75 actors.

Central Michigan University’s University Theatre will present performances of the play “Cyrano” this week in Moore Hall’s Bush Theatre; performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. today through Friday, at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday, and at 2 p.m. Sunday.

“We do all the sound effects in the show ourselves, so it’s kind of an interesting thing because you’re playing a character one second and then you walk two feet away and your banging a thunder sheet,” said Freeman, a Clinton Township sophomore.

This is Freeman’s first college performance and he plays more than five different characters.

Crump, a Southfield senior, plays Cyrano and said audiences will enjoy this love story told in a non-traditional way.

“‘Cyrano’ is a story about the quest for love and the obstacles that stand in our way,” he said. “We are showing a classic story in a very unconventional way.”

Cyrano is an accomplished man who feels his outward ugliness deprives him of the love of a beautiful woman, Roxane.

Freeman said everyone should be able to relate to the play, even if they don’t usually like theater, because most people can relate to feelings of rejection.

“We’re all on stage the whole time, we’re all rehearsing the whole time. It’s not like other plays where you can take a break when they’re rehearsing a scene you’re not in,” said Burnstad, a Ohio junior who plays Cyrano’s love interest.

Besides the music and number of performers, numerous different adaptations have been made to the original play to connect with the present day audience, including tattoos.

“(The tattoos are) an adaptation, something that Nancy put in because we’re blending elements of modern society and with a story that’s hundreds of years old and I think it’s just part of her vision to make that story relevant to the people of today,” Burnstad said.

Director Nancy Eddy added the rock music along with bits and pieces of the modern world with the time period of 1640.

There are no prerecorded sounds, besides the play’s music.

Traverse City freshman Keegan Wilson is one of two light board operators and master electricians, and said the play would be completely different if the lightning was changed.

“There’s a lot of go-go effects used, which kind of create shape within the light and there’s a lot of different colors with the scene changes used,” Wilson said.

Tickets cost $5 for students and $7 for adults and can be purchased at the Central Box Office.

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