About the Play:

The Marriage of Figaro is a full-length comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais. A Count's valet prepares to marry the Countess' chambermaid – until it becomes clear the Count wishes to revive an old law that will allow him to take advantage of the bride before the wedding.

The Marriage of Figaro is the original play on which Mozart based his opera. Figaro discovers that his master the Count intends to exercise droit de seigneur ("law of the first night") over Suzanne, Figaro's bride-to-be. His schemes to thwart the Count show the growing French endorsement of an aristocracy of merit and wits rather than birth, in Pierre Beaumarchais' 1784 play. It is the second in the Figaro trilogy, preceded by The Barber of Seville and followed by The Guilty Mother. The trilogy, preceded by The Barber of Seville and followed by The Guilty Mother.

The Marriage of Figaro was first staged in 1784 at the Théâtre Français and ran for 68 consecutive performances, earning higher box-office receipts than any other French play of the eighteenth century.

What people say:

"Beaumarchais, the dramatist behind The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville, was more than a mere playwright – he shaped the 18th century." — The Guardian

About the Playwright:

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732 - 1799) was a French playwright, watchmaker, inventor, musician, diplomat, fugitive, spy, publisher, horticulturalist, arms dealer, satirist, financier, and revolutionary (both French and American). Born a provincial watchmaker's son, he rose in French society and became influential in the court of Louis XV as an inventor and music teacher. He made a number of important business and social contacts, played various roles as a diplomat and spy, and had earned a considerable fortune before a series of costly court battles jeopardized his reputation.