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 valet's 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.
"...the very talented American playwright Richard Nelson [has undertaken] a new and emphatically idiomatic adaptation...Nelson's dialogue proves resolutely contemporary." Clive Barnes, New York Post
"The Beaumarchais/Nelson/Serban FIGARO is a pleasure to see, to talk about, to remember." Julius Novick, The Village Voice