Plays for Performance
4 total works
The Barber of Seville
by Pierre Augustin Caron De Beaumarchais and Bernard Sahlins
Published December 1905
Fast-moving and brisk, and filled with wit, humor, and gaiety, the Barber is assured of immortality because of its sheer fun. Plays for Performance Series.
The medieval Mysteries are, above all, wonderful stories involving families at work and play, all in relationship to an idea of a God who was not walled up in church to be visited only on Sunday but who was ever-present. Mr. Sahlins has adapted these stories to make their language available to a present-day American audience, preserving the verse in all its alliterative beauty while replacing medieval and regional words. The resulting play is joyous, suspenseful, and satisfying, an unusually engaging drama for all ages.
The Marriage of Figaro
by Henry Rowley Bishop, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Pierre Augustin Caron De Beaumarchais
Published December 1937
Sensual gaiety is at the heart of this comic masterpiece which continues the merry tale of the little barber of Seville, a clever common man whose wits overcome his superiors who would suppress him. In paring down the number of players, presenting the scenes more economically, and offering a translation that removes archaic phrasing, Mr. Sahlins delivers a script that can be comfortably staged by present-day theatres.
Following on his enormously successful The Mysteries: Creation, Bernard Sahlins has adapted the stories of The Passion to make an engaging drama for modern audiences. Plays for Performance Series.