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Edwin Morgan’s 1992 translation of Edmond Rostand’s romantic drama is a work of tremendous vigour. Funny, playful and bold, it is written in a linguistically expansive Glaswegian Scots, as dazzling in its breadth of vocabulary as it is audacious in its rhyming scheme. Focusing on the large-nosed Cyrano, a poet and soldier in 17th-century France, it’s an ugly duckling story in which the hero’s swanlike inner beauty goes unnoticed until it’s too late. The play goes from swashbuckling to comic, from romantic to heartbreaking, as it suggests that only time can distinguish the superficial from the soulful.

A celebrated hit for Communicado the first time round, it deserves every success in Dominic Hill’s rich and dynamic revival for the National Theatre of Scotland with the Citizens and the Royal Lyceum. Except working against that success, as the Citizens leaves its Gorbals home for a two-year refit, is an unflattering Tramway acoustic that turns Morgan’s dense dialogue into hard work. Instead of enjoying the poetic flourishes and the mix-and-match verbal gags, you find yourself straining to catch the words. Where there should be laughs, you get the quiet concentration of an audience simply trying to keep up with the action.

On Tom Piper’s open apron stage, gloriously lit by Lizzie Powell, it’s notable that, for all Hill’s arresting depth of field (soldiers doing tai chi or combat moves in the far distance), it is the intimate scenes that have the most emotional directness. The triangular relationship between Brian Ferguson as a downbeat Cyrano, Scott Mackie as a rabbit-in-the-headlights Christian and Jessica Hardwick as a radiant Roxane are invariably clear and compelling, especially as Hardwick has enough command of the language to cut through the acoustic fog. If the eventual understanding between Cyrano and Roxane is more sad than moving, they nonetheless make you mourn the loss of lovers that might have been.

With Pam Hogg’s costume designs creating the air of an Adam and the Ants video, a cheeky collision of scuzzy T-shirts and flamboyant hair-dos, the show has a behind-the-scenes theatricality and raucous ensemble spirit that could well flourish as it tours.

A statue by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, part of his famous Les Bourgeois de Calais group, is currently “unlocated” in Glasgow’s art collections, museum officials have said.

The plaster sculpture, bought by Glasgow Museums from the artist in 1901, was exhibited in Kelvingrove Park from 25 June to 30 September 1949, according to Glasgow Life, the organisation in charge of many of the Scottish city’s cultural venues. But since then, it seems to have been lost.

According to the Comité Rodin, which maintains a catalogue of the artist’s works around the world, the 2-metre sculpture represents Jean d’Aire, one of the figures in the Calais group.

Its director, Jérôme le Blay, told AFP that the disappearance was “regrettable, but must be put into the context of the times”, as plaster works did not arouse much interest in the 1940s. The value of the work today would be around €3.5m (£3m), he estimated.

The bronze statues of the six Bourgeois de Calais, celebrating the sacrifice of local dignitaries during a siege of the northern French town by English armies during the hundred years war, were commissioned by the municipality and unveiled in 1895. Numerous bronze and plaster versions of the statue exist around the world.

The missing statue had “suffered damage” at the time of the 1949 open-air exhibition, according to Glasgow Life.

Comité Rodin believes it could have suffered the same fate as another statue by the artist representing John the Baptist, which was exhibited at the same time at Kelvingrove. That broke, and its remains are stored at the Glasgow Museum Resource Centre.

Le Blay hopes that the remains of the “unlocated” piece may similarly be found in the archives at a later date.

About 1,750 other objects have disappeared from Scottish museums, including gold coins linked to Queen Mary I of Scotland, who reigned in the 16th century, according to the Times.

The British Museum also recently acknowledged the theft of thousands of items from its reserves, prompting the resignation of its director.

Museum Wales, the institution managing seven national museums in Wales, has discovered that it is missing 2,000 objects, according to the BBC. The organisation claims that many of the items may simply have been misplaced or misclassified and that they could be found as the inventory check progresses.

A cyclist hoping to be the first Scottish winner of the Tour de France will be the subject of a new documentary showcasing his journey through a major bout of depression to breaking a world record.

Josh Quigley, 30, originally from Livingston, attempted to take his own life in 2015.

But despite not having cycled since he was a child, he got on a bike and has never looked back.

He soon started to set himself challenges, including one to cycle round the world.

During his attempt in 2019, he was cycling through Texas in the US when he was hit by a car travelling at 70 miles per hour.

And while some may have treated it as a major setback, Mr Quigley said the first thing he asked when he woke up the next day was when could he get back on his bike.

He said: “When I had the crash and I woke up in hospital the next day, I was asking the doctors and nurses ‘when can I get back on my bike because I want to go and finish my challenge and finish cycling round the world’.

“I was very determined and very committed to doing it, I really fell in love with cycling on that challenge.

“I had an amazing mindset and it really helped me recover.

“I think that’s why I recovered so quickly.”

His experience has inspired a new documentary made for BBC Scotland called Cycling Saved My Life.

The documentary, which makers promise will be “emotional and uplifting”, follows Mr Quigley’s journey over six months as he attempted to qualify for the UCI World Championships in Glasgow next month.

He finally completed his ambition to cycle around the world in 2021 and broke the world record for the longest distance cycled in one day.

Now living in Glasgow, Mr Quigley gives motivational speeches at schools and colleges, but his main focus in racing and competing.

He added: “The long-term dream and goal for me is to try to make it to the highest level of cycling so that I can reach the Tour de France.

“I think for me to get to the Tour de France would be such an amazing story and I really believe I am capable of doing it so that’s what I want to try and do.”

Mr Quigley missed out on the Glasgow championships, but said the setback “only made me stronger”.

He hopes the documentary will help people have open conversations about suicide and mental health.

He added: “Cycling is my purpose now, and I’m giving it absolutely everything – I’ve missed out on the championships in Glasgow but, like every setback in life, that’s only made me stronger.”

The documentary was made by Studio Something and directed by co-founder Jordan Laird.

He said: “There’s a moment in the documentary when Josh talks about looking at a pint of lager and asking: ‘There must be more to life than this?’

“That brought home how universal this story is. Josh could have been one of my mates, I know so many people feel like him, who experience mental health issues but don’t talk about it.

“This is a story of the transformative power of sport, of how sport can save someone’s life.

“It’s a regular guy putting every ounce into something. Watching him has had a huge impact on my life and I think his story will have a huge impact on others. It’s been a long time in the making, and I can’t wait for people to see it.”

The documentary will air on BBC One at 7.30pm on Friday July 28.

As part of an evening of Beethoven and Strauss, the RSNO and French pianist Lise de la Salle also captured the picturesque magic of music by little-known 20th century English composer Dorothy Howell, writes Ken Walton

RSNO & Lise de la Salle, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall *****

“There’s never been a more challenging funding culture for the arts,” warned RSNO chief executive Alistair Mackie as he introduced his orchestra’s season opener. It was a programme distinguished by spiritual opulence, musical discovery and artistic excellence, and the news that it would be repeated in Austria as part of the RSNO’s forthcoming three-night residency at Salzburg’s Grosses Festspielhaus. How we undervalue our most precious exports.

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The Salzburgers will surely delight in Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, especially a version as insightful and forensic as music director Thomas Søndergård’s. It was remarkable for its textural precision, the fine-tuning of its internal conversations, the monumentalism of its mountainous Romantic sweep, but more than anything its colourful, storytelling impact. The interplay of sensuous, often mischievous intimacy (leader Maya Iwabuchi’s agile solo presence) with the wild cacophony of the battle scene, Strauss’ grotesque caricatures of his critics against the ultimate glow of self-satisfaction with which this self-portrait ends, was all-consuming.

The opening half was no less compelling, featuring a tone poem Lamia (after Keats’ poem) by the little-known 20th century English composer Dorothy Howell, and an instantly arresting performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3 by the French pianist Lise de la Salle.

How Howell’s music has remained so obscure is astonishing. Sumptuously scored, its fluid narrative owes much to Straussian models, yet generates its own distinctiveness through exotic, whole-tone allusions to Debussy. Søndergård captured its picturesque magic.

The mood changed abruptly with de la Salle’s assertive Beethoven. The opening Allegro combined electrifying finger work with warm poetic empathy. Her Largo was a slow burner, expansive but with a clear destination, that reverie dispelled immediately by a wild and exhilarating finale.

Museum bosses are unable to locate a sculpture by world famous artist Auguste Rodin, said to be worth £3m.

Officials at Glasgow Museums said a plaster version of Les Bourgeois de Calais was purchased in 1901.

However, the sculpture is among almost 1,750 items currently listed as missing or stolen.

The charity that runs the city's museums said it was known to have been damaged after it was put on public display after World War Two.

Glasgow Life confirmed the sculpture is currently listed as "unlocated".

Rodin - who later became famous for his "Thinker" sculpture - was allowed by French law to manufacture different versions of "Les Bourgeois" in plaster and bronze.

A life-size bronze version of the sculpture takes pride of place in the gardens of the Houses of Parliament in London.

The plaster version is known to have been displayed in Kelvingrove Park in 1949 for the Sculpture in the Open Air exhibition along with another Rodin work, Saint jean de Baptiste.

Officials said Les Bourgeois is known to have been damaged during this exhibition and its whereabouts are currently unknown. The other sculpture is in storage at the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre.

The loss was described as '"utterly shameful" by the Paris-based Comite Rodin, which publicises and catalogues Rodin's work.

Jerome Le Blay, the Comite's director, said: "We lose a bit of humanity when we lose a work of art.

"Museums may have 100,000 items, so occasionally things get dropped or get lost in shipping. Art is often destroyed in acts of war - that's life - but when it goes missing as a result of mishandling or mismanagement by people it is utterly shameful.

"It really is deeply disappointing to discover Glasgow has lost art of this significance and importance."

Improved cataloguing

A spokesperson for Glasgow Life told BBC Scotland News it had spent 20 years "conducting an inventory" of items in its collection which has included finding objects previously listed as lost.

"The process of recording, cataloguing and caring for the Glasgow Museums Collection has improved significantly since it was founded in the 1860s," the spokesperson said.

"For 30 years, the cataloguing of the collection has been increasingly centralised using the Museum's Collection Management System.

"As part of the major museums capital projects in Glasgow over the last 20 years, the storage of the collection has also been improved."

Les Bourgeois de Calais depicts the plight of the French port's residents during an 11-month siege by the English during the Hundred Years War in the late Middle Ages.

The burghers (Les Bourgeois) offered up their lives if their town could be spared.