Lazebník sevillský

ABOUT THE PLAY

The famous comedy about a servant with wit as sharp as a razor.

In the streets of Seville, beautiful young Rosina lives in a house with barred windows. She is kept under lock and key by the old Doctor Bartholo, whose affection for her goes far beyond what is proper for a guardian. What bad luck for Count Almaviva: the beauty he fell in love with in Madrid six months ago and has only now managed to find is being forced to marry her jealous guardian.

Fortunately, the barber Figaro is nearby. A former servant of Almaviva, he can do almost anything—from shaving and healing wounds to devising intrigues full of disguises and tricks. Who could be surprised that the young lovers and one barber turn Bartholo’s house upside down?

The celebrated playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais wrote three plays about the servant Figaro at the end of the eighteenth century, causing a sensation across Europe. Two of them, The Barber of Seville (1773) and The Marriage of Figaro (1775), became permanent fixtures on the world’s dramatic and operatic stages, thanks also to works by Gioachino Rossini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

In The Barber of Seville, the first comedy, Beaumarchais introduces the cunning servant Figaro, whose nimble tongue and unique tactical skills create a flood of splendid comic situations and sensational humour that still delights audiences today.

The play now comes to the stage of Brno City Theatre in a completely new translation by Zuzana Čtveráčková, who also prepared a new translation of Molière’s The Miser for the theatre. Directed by Stanislav Moša and starring Michal Isteník as the crafty barber, this famous Beaumarchais comedy promises another unforgettable production.

PERFORMERS

Written by: Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

Directed by: Stanislav Moša

Cast: Aleš Slanina, Milan Němec, Svetlana Janotová, Michal Isteník, Alan Novotný, Jakub Przebinda, Ondřej Halámek, Patrik Bořecký, Josef Jurásek, Ondřej Halámek / Jakub Przebinda

PROGRAMME

A comedy by Brno City Theatre. Running time: 3 hours 15 minutes including an interval.

Photographs: Brno City Theatre archive