"Michel and Duncombe have... fully inhabited their new space with this production"—LA Stage Times
"Stunning and provocative production that leaves you asking questions as you leave"—CultureVulture.net
"An exciting production, beautifully mounted"—Stage Happenings
Publications / Licensing
The Marriage of Figaro Now Open!
City Garage brings to the stage Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro in a new version for City Garage by Frederíque Michel & Charles Duncombe.
Beaumarchais’s notorious comedy was the most scandalous play of the 18th century—and its most incredible theatrical success. When it was first read to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, the King declared in fury that he found the work “detestable” and forbade its production. Beaumarchais defied the royal edict, and was rewarded with the biggest hit of his career: the opening night was greeted with such thunderous and constant applause that the performance took five hours to complete.
A wicked satire of the moral depravity of the aristocracy, Beaumarchais’ clever and determined servants outwit, manipulate, and ultimately humiliate their master, exposing the Count for the fraud he is. So subversive was the play considered in its depiction of the ruling class, that during World War II Vichy France would also not allow it to be performed.
In the spirit of City Garage's popular recent adaptations of The Bourgeois Gentilhomme and The School for Wives, this world premiere adaptation brings The Marriage of Figaro to new and vigorous life as a witty, sexy, outrageous, and a delightful attack on privilege, status, and hypocrisy.
