THE INSIDER

Vol 29, No. 1

Inside
From the Artistic Director Becoming Beaumarchais by Kate Farrington On the Adaptor: All the Morey Details A Comedic Pedigree: A Commedia Tradition Timeline 1637 - 1793

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Other Insider Events

Tuesday Talks Post -Show Nov. 6 & 13 Join the artists who made the production for the inside story on its journey from page to stage. Curtain Up Classics Post-Show Nov. 3 Learn more about the history, significance, and world of the play in this informal lecture. Shakespeare Talks: Special Event Oct. 29 Directing Shakespeare 7pm ($18) A riveting and fascinating conversation about the challenges and rewards of directing the greatest playwright in the English language. (Presented in partnership with the Shakespeare Society.)

THE INSIDER: FIGARO

When The Pearl opens a delightfully fresh new adaptation of a famed comic masterpiece from French playwright Beaumarchais, it will mark a new beginning and a great advance for our theatre. The 29th Season opens with Figaro and that famous comic character will be seen darting and dodging about on The Pearls New Stage for the Classics42nd Street near Eleventh Avenue is your new destination for great performances from The Pearl Theatre Company.

The excitement is building. Much more than the new Pearl season is on the way. Its nothing less than the launch of a new era in the life of New Yorks classical theatre company.

FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

The promise of richly rewarding work from The Pearls Resident Acting Company, guest artists, and imaginative designers is already to be felt in our rehearsal hall and in every meeting now underway for all of our shows in the coming season. James DeVitas In Acting Shakespeare is a personal story of imaginative transformation fed by the brilliance of William Shakespeare. That brilliance will be in further evidence in the great dramatists remarkable Henry IV, Part 1 as immortal characters the likes of Jack Falstaff, Prince Hal, and Harry Hotspur carry forth the tale begun so vividly in Richard II. And then, to crown the year, The Pearl proudly presents the world premiere of a new play by Tony Award winning Terrence McNally. And Away We Go time-travels from backstage in ancient Athens to a rehearsal at Londons Globe Theatreand takes off from there to 1789 in Versailles to a first reading of a play by Chekhov to an unlikely stop in Coconut Grove and the American premiere of Waiting for Godot. All of this in a new and permanent home for The Pearl adds up to a very special season from New Yorks classical theatre company. As to that first show, Charles Morey has written a freshly invigorating Figaro that is also receiving its premiere at The Pearl. Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais is best known for that trio of plays that featured the memorable title character,

the first being The Barber of Seville and then, of course, The Marriage of Figaro each forming the basis for famous operas of the same titles. But if someone gets around to writing the story of Beaumarchais life, The Pearl may be looking into presenting that as well. According to his own memoirs, this comic master was also a spy, smuggler, financier, musician and even a watchmaker (his fathers trade and the one he first practiced inventing an escapement mechanism for timepieces that is essentially still in practical use). He was married three times, spent a number of years in Spain (the setting of course for the Figaro comedies), and even though he returned to France to write very popular comedies lampooning the aristocracy while decrying injustices visited upon the lower classes he was later under suspicion for his wealth by the revolutionaries who overthrew the aristocratic system and imprisoned as a consequence. But his name lives on in comedy and music alike, and the character of Figaro (to be played by resident acting company member Sean McNall) will live on as well. The Pearl is powered by your presence and sustaining support. We are deeply grateful and look forward to welcoming you to all of the great shows we have in store for this exciting inaugural season on 42nd Street.

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a jack of all tradesplaywright, composer, politician, entrepreneur, spy, and occasional convict who made his fortune moving among the French aristocracy, and gained notoriety by mocking the great men he found there.

J. R. Sullivan Artistic Director

BECOMING BEAUMARCHAIS
by Kate Farrington

It started with a pocket watch. To be precise, with the innards of a pocket watch. These jewelencrusted timepieces of the 18th century made for grand fashion statementsbut were utter failures at telling time. While working in his fathers Paris shop, Pierre-Augustin Caron, a young man of no breeding or family, hit on a design that drastically improved a watchs accuracy. Brimming with pride, he confided his findings to the kings personal watchmaker, who praised the young mans ingenuityand promptly pilfered his design. Young he might be, but Pierre-Augustin was no fool. He ran to the Paris papers and threw himself (no doubt dramatically and with wild gesticulations) on the mercy of public opinion. Writing the story of this terrible theft, he cast himself in the role of budding inventor and innocent victim, powerless and without recourse in the cruel, cruel world. The Parisian public took the wronged young man to its collective bosom; and when a well-publicized court case found in his favor, they hailed Pierre-Augustin, the underdog who triumphed, as a hero. Parlaying his newfound fame into an entre to court, he presented watches to the king and his family, earning their praiseand a post as the kings new personal watchmaker (revenge is sweet). He married a widow of good fortune, purchased a position at court, and enlarged his name to fit his new rankPierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. At 24 he had learned two vital lessons: with an enthusiastic audience on your side, anything is possible; and, when fate or hard work hand you an unexpected chance at good fortune its time to run with it. So began a wild ridea long improbable career that reflected the whirling times he lived in. Inventor, musician, composer, merchant, ambassador, spy, gunrunner, prisoner (several times), royalist, reformer, outcast, and, of course, playwright: Beaumarchais played more roles in any given year than most

people manage in a lifetime. His fortune, like that of his country, rose and fell, but always he shook off failure and looked eagerly toward his next great enterprise. That sprawling career reached its zenith nearly thirty years later, on a Paris stage where a mere servant stood before a rapt audience of nobles and peasants alike and told them the epic tale of misadventure, dumb luck, giddy fortune, persecution, perseverance, and occasional catastrophe that had brought him to that moment. In The Marriage of Figaro, with its dazzling wit and colorful panoply of conniving characters, its energy and indignation, the citizens of Paris certainly heard echoes of its authors unlikely life story. But there was more. Lurking behind the laughter, many heard the low rumble of discontent that would soon topple the world they knew, leaving in its place an uncertain, unfinished, frightening, and breathtakingly exciting future. But in 1756, at 24, our hero was focused on a much more important futurehis own. For years, Beaumarchais knew only clear skies. He served as music teacher and composer, envoy to Spain, and international investor. He wrote impudent essays for the papers (very successful), and serious drama for the stage (disastrous). He charmed every woman he encountered, married twice, and kept a string of mistresses. He made great friends among businessmen, and enemies among the nobility who sneered at the upstart Nobody from Nowhere and his mechanical skills. But his fortunes took a turn for the worse in the 1770s with the deaths of his wife and two children, legal troubles, and finally a brawl that pitted him against a corrupt judge. Beaumarchais had gleefully eviscerated both the judges character and the entire legal system in a series of published articles. Neither the judge nor the legal system were amused. Beaumarchais was stripped of his civil rights and publically denounced. Disgraced, but determined to win a pardon from the king, he

became (why not?) a spy. He dashed around Europe gathering intelligence, hounding treasonous pamphleteers, and facing down highwaymen. He spent a month (or as he moaned to his friends, 44,640 interminable minutes) in an Austrian prison. Louis XVI called him a madman but relied on him. Beaumarchais was having the time of his life. He even found time to write The Barber of Seville, which premiered in 1775 to thunderous applause. But Beaumarchais was far too busy to focus on playwriting (or anything) for long. The American colonies, on the brink of rebellion, needed aid. Armed with tacit government approval and a few million livres in secret funds, he set up a shipping company and played cat-and-mouse with the ever-suspicious British navy while his small fleet of merchant ships smuggled arms to the grateful colonies. Beaumarchais poured much of his personal fortune into this work. The cause of America is in many respects the cause of humanity, he declared. One can almost see him imagining a nation of on-the-make Figaros: a nation of innovators rebelling against injustice; a country being molded by the working class, and therefore built not on birth, but on talent. Think of the possibilities. . . Every step of this career played out under the avid eyes of the public, who cheered him on as though his victories were their own, laughed at the messes he found himself inand shouted in the streets when he was badly used by the state. Beaumarchais treated the people of France (rich and poor, noble and commoner) as his intimate friends, his best judges, and his loyal companions. Fellow playwrights sometimes dismissed him as a businessman and intriguer who dabbled in art when the mood struck him. But why should he look to the academies and philosophers for approval when the people of France were on his side? They loved him for it. Even when public opinion occasionally turned against him, he always found a way to bring them around.

When the theatrical mood struck him next, Beaumarchais began work on a play that would reflect the years of intrigue, adventure, and personal setbacks hed known. It would denounce the powerful, and make heroes of the powerless condemn injustice and reward intelligence. And, naturally, be outrageously funny.

FIGARO REVISITED
Several years have passed since Count Almavira had the double good fortune to bump into a barber named Figaro in the streets of Seville and to win the beautiful Rosine from her guardian, Dr. Bartholowith Figaros help, of course. It should have been happily ever afterbut the Counts wandering eye has left his countess unhappy and the local girls uneasy. Tomorrow, Figaro is set to marry the love of his life, the countess maid Suzanne. But when she admits that the Count is determined to seduce her, Figaro knows they need to act fast. I need a little scheme, Figaro declares, and leaps into action, ready to take on the nobility, the courts, and anyone else who gets in his way. Plots, counterplots, countercounterplots, happy accidents, and laughter for its own sake ensuewith Figaro and Suzanne deftly weaving their way through a gauntlet of madcap characters blocking their path to happiness. When Louis XVI heard the play read aloud, he famously declared that only the fall of the Bastille could be a more dangerous event than The Marriage of Figaro, and forbade its performance. Beaumarchais shrugged and spent several years reading it to every aristocrat in the country, until Louis was forced to give in. The first performance in a crowded theatre in 1784 was a lightning bolt. The nobility laughed at themselves; the working class laughed at the nobility; they all roared at the comedy and thrilled to the righteous indignation of an erstwhile barber. For

a brief moment, the political discourse was in the mouths of the voiceless. And what they had to say was startling. On the eve of the revolution George Danton would put it even more bluntly: Figaro killed the aristocracy. In January of 1789 Abb Sieys published a short pamphlet examining the situation of the millions of French citizens who, under the archaic feudal French political system, were almost powerless. It was called: What is the Third Estate? He began the work with three stark statements: What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. What does it ask? To become something. A series of bad harvests, tax hikes that affected the working class but not the nobility, war that had crippled the economy, rampant inflation, a corrupt legal system, and the undeniable truth that millions of voices crying out for help or justice were going unheard. And the word was traveling fast through cafs, salons, and streets: if America had shaken off a tyrants yoke, so could France. Within a few short months France would see ancient powers topple, one government fall and another rise. In the peoples quest to become something their revolution would take a terrifying and unforeseeable directionbut no one denied the need for change. For the first time in his life Beaumarchais, now past 60, did not leap into the fray. Reform was one thing, bloody rebellion another. He was no paragon of revolutionary spirit or national patriotismhe was an intimate of the court (when they were on speaking terms), a man who enjoyed luxury and privilege, and a shameless glory hound. He was everything the revolution despised. In 1792 he wrote his final Figaro play, set twenty years after Marriage. Figaro still schemed, still worked for the good of the

Counts familybut the humor was thin, the happiness muted. Figaro has no place in a world interested only in propaganda and patriotismand neither did Beaumarchais. His audience, great companion in all his adventures, dismissed him. In and out of favor (and in and out of prison) for the next several years, Beaumarchais could only endure, and hope, as he wrote a friend, for the return of gentler times. He died in 1799. For a long time, he once wrote, I have known that to live is to fight; and I would feel desolate, perhaps, if I did not feel on the other hand that to fight is to live. Politician, diplomat, spy, musician, watchmaker, or writerit really didnt matter what he was doing as long as the struggle to become something more or something else got him somewhere. Where? Somewhere he hadnt been before: with fame and fortune thrown in for good measure. The conscious choice to become is exhilarating and perilous: once you strike out on the path you really cant know where youll end up. As Figaro reminds us, so much of what happens or doesnt happen in the world is chance. But The Pearl Theatre Company is proud to welcome you to this next stage of our own becoming. We find ourselves in a beautiful new homethrilled at the opportunities presented to us, grateful for the chance to stretch our wings, and maybe a little giddy at this newest adventure for our company. Fortunately, we (like Figaro) have the best possible companions with whom to share our adventurea truly remarkable audience of great champions, shrewd critics, and loyal friends. We hope that, whatever this journey brings us, we will make it a memorable onewith misadventures, dumb luck, and happy accidents along the way. Fate and hard work have brought us this chance at good fortunetime to run with it.

Charles Morey is a man of many talents: award-winning playwright, translator, adaptor, director, actor, and a former artistic director of both the Peterborough Players and the Pioneer Theatre Company. We asked him to chat a bit about his life in the theatre and his work on The Marriage of Figaro.

Youve worked on numerous translations/adaptations (of both plays and novels) in addition to original works in your career Laughing Stock, The Yellow Leaf, Dumas Camille,The Ladies Man (freely adapted from Feydeau) and stageadaptations of the 19th century classic novels:The Count of Monte Cristo, A Tale of Two Cities, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Three Musketeers what about translating and adapting attracts you? How did you get started? When I was first attracted by the dark lure of the theatre in college, I thought I was going to be a writer. But I was very quickly seduced to the dark side and began my professional career as an actor, eventually making the transition into directing and producing about a decade later. But I eventually came back around to that original impulse. My first play and my first adaptation was Alexandre Dumas The Three Musketeers. The impulse behind it was very simple: I had always loved the novel and I wanted to direct a stage adaptation but couldnt find one that captured the panache of the original. So, I wrote my own. It turned out to be successful and that led me to adapt four more 19th century novels and a 19th century play interspersed with writing three original plays over the following two decades. The attraction of adaptation in the case of a novel is the challenge of translating, say, one thousand pages of narrative prose into dialogue and action within two and half hours of stage time while remaining faithful to the essential tone, style, and theme of the original. With a play, the task is somewhat different: to translate the language into a contemporary idiom that is accessible but retains a period feel; and also to translate sometimes archaic conventions into a modern theatricality. And, of course, in the case of many period plays, a major task is to cut the cast down to a size that is economically viable for a 21st century theatre company.

ON THE ADAPTOR: ALL THE MOREY DETAILS

What first attracted you to this particular play? I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I had never read The Marriage of Figaro before The Pearl approached me about commissioning an adaptation. I knew it only as the source of Da Pontes libretto for the famous Mozart opera. But when I did read it, I was immediately taken by how funny it is. I love farce. Ive written two and directed many and Figaro has all the elements of classic farce. As you worked on the script, was there anything you discovered that surprised you? As I worked through the original text and began to read a bit about Beaumarchais I was surprised and intrigued to learn how controversial the play had been in its time and what a profound impact it had on the politics and history of late 18th century France. Louis XVI banned the play for several years but was ultimately prevailed upon by Marie Antoinette to allow its presentation at court. At first glance, for a contemporary reader, the original doesnt appear to be wildly subversive, to be honest. But, when you read more closely it becomes clear that underneath the humor is an up-ending of the social order that is fundamental to the farce form itself and a deep populist anger that resonates very distinctly in an age when income inequality has yet again become a societal issue. The contemporary political relevance became something that really excited me. It also intrigued me how self-referential the play was to its audience in 1784. Everyone who saw it knew the central character was based upon Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais himself and Figaros life, troubles and escapades mirrored those of Beaumarchais. The dramaturgical question became: how to reflect that sort of self-referential quality for an audience most of whom would know little of Beaumarchais?

My answer was to take a sometimes meta-theatrical approach to this adaptation that would allow Figaro to play directly with the audience and share the overtly theatrical context of the piece. Why do you think the character of Figaro is so enduring? After the first production of the play the character of Figaro rapidly became iconic in French culture as one who both satirized and told truth to power. In 1826, the newspaper Le Figaro was founded to memorialize and give voice to the spirit of Beaumarchais creation. But, in essence, Figaro is an old, old staple of the theatre: the wily servant, the trickster whose origins you can see in Aristophanes, Plautus, and the Commedia dellarte; follow through Goldoni, Molire, Labiche and Feydeau, and right into the 20th century when Figaros heirs include both Groucho Marx and Bugs Bunny. Whats up next for you? I have two new plays I am working on, both original, not adaptations, one based on a sensational true story of murder and forgery that happened several decades past; the other a contemporary comedy, which I sometimes refer to as a geriatric sex farce. Im booked in 2013 to direct a production of Les Misrables back at Pioneer Theatre Company where I served as artistic director for 28 yearsand it looks as if Ill direct a production of my backstage farce Laughing Stock shortly after that. Beyond thatIm waiting for the phone to ring.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette first heard the controversial Marriage of Figaro read to them in the privacy of their rooms in the palace of Versailles. The king was restless, constantly interrupting the reading to comment on the script. That was in bad taste! he exclaimed at one point. The man constantly brings Italian conceits into the scene.

The play skirted the edge of propriety. Scenes of romance and social commentary were here exaggerated into blatant innuendo and biting satireand Louis, at least, was not amused. Farce had its place, of course; but this brash piece left the delicate world of French comedy of manners to land squarely in commedia dellarte territory. Rough and tumble, improvisational, bawdy, and sharp-witted, commedia dellarte has kept audiences laughing for hundreds of years. In late 15th century Italy the performers and minstrels of the Middle Ages took their art in a new direction. They formed companies and wandered the countryside, setting up shop in markets and town squares, performing improvised short plays peppered with local colornews and gossip picked up in the towns local tavern. These improvised plays were almost always stories of young lovers triumphing in the face of foolish and miserly fathers or suitors. They relied on a cast of stock characters who appeared in every play. By the time Beaumarchais picked up his pen, the history of commedia dellarte stretched back more than 200 years and across Europe, a tradition of sharp wit, vibrant characters, and bawdy humor. The brilliant plays of Molire, Marivauxs effervescent comedies of manners, and Goldonis raucous farces all had their roots in commedia soil, even as these playwrights took commedias stock figures and rebooted them in the style of their day. Beaumarchais created something innovative, powerful, and dangerously funny in The Marriage of Figaro. But behind Figaros quick wit and Count Almaviras misadventures in love can be seen the shadow of characters and stories stretching back (and that would stretch forward as well) for hundreds of years.

A COMIC PEDIDREE: THE COMMEDIA TRADITION

Brighella
Brash, ruthless, devious, fearless, and a tactical genius, Brighella is the brains of any devious operation launched in the commedia-verse. Definitely no ladies man, hes still up for a flirtation when it suits his purposes. He has no pesky conscience to hinder his plans, so this servant serves his master with cunning and asperity.

Arlecchino
Known for his amorous ambitions and his sometimes incongruous navet, Arlecchino (like his fellow servant Brighella) doesnt have much of a conscience but hes a little less vicious. His plans arent always airtight, and though cunning, hes generally better suited to general mischief and devilry than tactical maneuvering. He can almost always be found in the company of Columbina, the woman he loveswho, for reasons best known to herself, loves him back.

Punchinella
Hes mean, hes vicious, and hes definitely crafty. His modus operandi is to play dumbno one would suspect such a simple fellow to know whats going on. Some physical irregularity is always attached to the charactera hunched back or bizarrely long nose. He is a confirmed bachelor who loves to chase the ladies but somehow, they never get caught.

Columbina
This wily maid is a force to be reckoned with. She is shrewd, witty, no-nonsense, charismatic and far more refined than her beloved Arlecchino. Columbina is the confidante of her mistress, the most practical of the servants, and she is often the closest thing to a voice of reason in the chaotic commedia-verse.

Il Dottore
He is a supposedly learned man most notable for his pomposity and bluster. Usually a friend (and sometimes a rival) of Pantalone, he is always on the lookout for a scheme that will prove his cleverness and secure his wealth. Whether hes spouting bad Latin or failing to cure the simplest disease, he is a quackand like Pantalone, never comes out on top.

Pantalone
A rich, elderly gentleman of leisure, often miserly and always jealous, Pantalone is usually to be seen with a young wife or an adventurous daughter who inevitably escapes his clutches to fly to the arms of a lover. Sometimes he himself is chasing a woman of fortune and/or beauty and she slips through his clutches at the last second.

The Inamorati
These poetic and handsome lovers are very charmingbut not always equipped to overcome the obstacles facing their courtship. They rely on the ingenuity, loyalty, and deviousness of Arlecchino and Columbina to foil parents, guardian, and rivals and win their happily ever after.

TIMELINE

In the mid 17th century a burst of innovation in literature, science, philosophy, and art swept across France, leaving lasting artistic changes in its wake. The theatre emerged revitalized, sparking an era of extreme creativity that carried through to the very eve of the revolution. Straddling two eras in French theatre, Beaumarchais began his career under the auspices of the king and ended it under the cool eye of the National Convention. More than any other playwright of his time he was the inheritor of a rich tradition, and the herald of changes to come.

1637 - 1793

1645 Jodelet, writtenand performed by Paul Scarron, takes Paris by storm. A clownish character with a white powdered face, Jodelet was the perfect blend of Italian commedia practices and French classicism. 1659 Jean Baptist Poquelinknown to history as Monsieur de Molirearrives in Paris with his traveling company of players. They had toured the French countryside for years performing irreverent farces to adoring crowds. Louis XIV would soon christen them the Troupe du Roi. 1682 Louis XIV moves the royal court from Paris to the newly constructed Palace of Versailles, which becomes the new (and removed) seat of French power. This will have a profound, and devastating, effect on the peoples relationship to the monarchy.

1637 Pierre Corneilles Le Cid brings the question of the unities to the frontlines of French art, and (for better or worse) this neoclassical style will dominate French theatre for the next 200 years. Descartes Discourses on the Method offers the universally famous statement Cogito ergo sum: I think, therefore I am.

1666 The Great Fire of London. 1667 With the premiere of his first play Andromaque, Jean Racine announces himself as the great tragic writer of his day. He will go on to pen some of the most memorable verse plays of his time, including Brnice, Phdre and Britanicus.

1687 Sir Isaac Newton publishes his law of universal gravitation. 1689 With the death of Molire in 1673, the Troupe du Roi loses their greatest writer, but continues to perform stunning comedies. In 1689, the aging King Louis XIV, absolutist of absolute monarchs orders them to join forces with another company for form the Comedie Francaise. Its good to be the king.

1692 The Salem witch trials begin.

1715 The death of Louis XIV leaves his five year-old great grandson to be crowned king.

1729 Premiere of The Game of Love and Chance by Marivaux, one of his greatest works. He deftly combines the commedia tradition with a nascent comedy of manners stylecombining romance, wordplay and social commentary, often seen through the lens of a servant and his (or her) master or mistress.

1728 The Beggars Opera by John Gay, considered by some the first musical, premieres in London.

1793 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are executed in Paris. 1792 The Guilty Mother, the third and final Figaro play, premieres to universal dislikeFrance was in no mood for sentimental family drama. 1789 The French Revolution begins. During this time, many new theatres open, and playwrights are encouraged to write plays on current events and patriotismbut the new regime is quick to censor any play that criticizes the government. 1784 Figaro finally has its first performance at the Odeon in Paris. 1777 Beaumarchais forms The Society of Authors which would eventually go on to establish copyright laws in France. Beaumarchais referred to it as his society of crazy people.

1786 Mozarts opera Le nozze de Figaro premieres in Vienna. 1778-1781 The Marriage of Figaro is written and then widely read throughout Parisian high society, but the king refuses to allow performances. 1776 The American Revolution begins.

1775 After some furious post-first night rewrites, Beaumarchais The Barber of Seville becomes a smash hit. 1773 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith. 1757 The Natural Son (Diderot) begins a fad for comedy of tearssentimental tales of the middle class rather than adventures of the elite. 1748 The Liar by Carlo Goldoni 1732 Birth of Pierre-Augustin Caron Publication of Voltaires tragedy Zaire. Benjamin Franklin prints the first issues of his Poor Richards Almanac.

1774 Louis XVI crowned king of France. 1767 Eugene , Beaumarchais first drama, is played at the Comedie Franaise. It does not go well.

1754 St Andrews Royal and Ancient Golf Club founded in Scotland. The start of the French and Indian War in North America (part of the global Seven Years War).