JUST don’t mention the nose. Few who do live to tell the tale.

Cyrano de Bergerac is the greatest swordsman in France, capable of taking on 100 assailants at a stroke. He is not the kind of man who accepts insults lightly, even if his conk is the size of his ego.

And if his sword doesn’t do for you, then his equally sharp rapier wit most certainly will.

Director Trevor Nunn’s new interpretation of the classic story of the soldier poet, haunted by his love for the beautiful Roxane, yet forced to provide the words to woo her for another man, burst onto the Chichester stage this week.

Hollywood star Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare In Love) plays Bergerac. A powerful, moving performance, made even more remarkable by the need to overcome – much as his character – the huge organ attached to his face.

And massive it is. Not the slim, turned-up, Pinocchio of a sniffer, the kind used for comic effect in Steve Martin’s film adaptation, Roxanne, but a solid, thick, giant of a hooter in the Gallic style.

For Cyrano, pictured, it is word play he longs to use to deflect from the deformity he believes makes him ugly to the world. Fiennes proves it can be achieved, turning in a startling performance where the nose that hides most of his facial expression is forgotten before the first scene is played out. He is, it seems, not just a pretty face.

Alice Eve plays the beautiful, wilful Roxane in exuberant style. She has a comic wit to challenge all but Cyrano, but at times the audience could have been left wondering why a soul as deep as Bergerac would fall so hopelessly for such a childish imp as she gambols impetuously around the stage.

Stephen Hagan is the handsome yet dumb Christian, persuaded by Cyrano to let him provide the soul to his advances to Roxane but who comes to realise she has fallen for a myth.

Commanding the stage whenever he makes an appearance is Scott Handy in the role of Le Comte de Guiche; a truly superb performance of understated, measured aristocracy moving effortlessly from rogue to victim, from revision to pity and finally respect.

The battle scene from the siege of Arras is the showpiece of the drama, both dramatic and emotional.

Nunn has created a tour-de-force at Chichester. A pity that it will only run for two weeks. Tickets are still available.