A play and a movie

I watched a play in the sat afternoon -Chung Yin Theatre Company's Cyrano de Bergerac. I had high expectation and ended up pretty diappointed. There is no tension in the play. Cyrano can only be attractive if he is in pain, yet pretends to be playful on the surface. That creates tension.
Audiences will not be touched because they cannot feel/see the pain - the unspoken love. because of the lack of confidence in appearance. (see the success of 'Beauty and the beast' , 'the phantom of the opera'). Little gestures of love are important details in making audience believe that Cyrano is indeed making sacrifice. But can't find any in the performance today. The clown's role in a play is normally for anti-climax, for relief of tension but there is no tension to be relieved! The clown characters are usually most popular and they are not this time. There is only one time applause at the end of the play. As a frequent goer of plays, you know what it means. I don't want to be harsh or demanding but I do thirst for good play.

I watched a movie at night - Atonement. Making my final move towards christmas movies.
In a nutshell, you could find the theme of atonement already existed in the ten commandments,

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. Deuteronomy 4:20

There is no flashback, playback, rewriting in real life/reality.
Let not jealousy, pride, selfishness or love blind our eyes and turn us to lies
It could be a tragic no-return.

Same director once directed pride and prejudice, you can see that Jane Austen's things run in the blood of the little sister Baillie.