"THERE is an incredible mixture of Moliere and Fawlty Towers about this play - the subversive wit and the twisting plot make it one of the great masterworks of theatre, and I think that's what first drew me towards it," says Michael West (29), whose adaptation of Beaumarchais's classic, The Marriage of Figaro, opens tomorrow night at the Abbey.
"Many people associate The Marriage of Figaro with Mozart rather than Beaumarchais, thanks to the composer's wholesale lifting of the plot, characters and title for his opera," says West.
"Mozart effectively stole the whole thing from Beaumarchais and never paid any royalties. Nowadays, even though Beaumarchais's original play is the second most performed play in the French language, after Tartufte, a lot of people link the title with Mozart."
West was first commissioned to adapt the play in 1990 by TCD's Head of Drama, Dr John McCormick, to whom he dedicates this production. "At the time it was my calling card, and then I moved on to other things, but the Abbey still had it from that period, and a year or so ago this production started to come together," he says.
"I did a one act play for the Peacock last year, but I don't think my original work is really suited to a stage as large as the Abbeys. They promote a lot of new writing through the Peacock, and something like The Marriage of Figaro can bring in a relatively new writer while also staging a classic piece of theatre."
Patrick Mason, director of the National Theatre, dismisses any suggestion that in staging an adaptation of Beaumarchais in the wake of She Stoops To Folly (an adaptation of Goldsmith) and the recent Pirandello translation by. Tom Murphy, the Abbey is perhaps leaning too much on new versions of established work, rather than entirely new productions.
"I would disagree with that entirely. The Peacock and the Abbey are both used to staging new writing, and we have a new season of original work scheduled at the Peacock, including Michael Harding and Tom McIntyre. There are new plays by Brian Friel and Tom Kilroy at the Abbey next year, and so I would have little time for any suggestion that we were not producing enough original work," says Mason.
"A play such as The Marriage of Figaro introduces a very talented new writer to an Abbey audience, while also providing a certain box office strength in that it is a new adaptation of Beaumarchais. It covers both financial and creative criteria, and extends our brief of continually widening the Abbey's horizons."
West has chosen to move the play from Beaumarchais's original late 18th century Spanish setting, to France in the 1930s.
"I needed to find a period that was on the cusp of as much political upheaval as the original setting, but one which was also set in great social and moral turmoil. Beaumarchais was effectively attacking the entire political system in the court of the time, which was why it was banned, in that it was lambasting the aristocracy in favour of a meritocracy.
But I feel that it is the analysis of marriage and of morality that is at the heart of the play's dramatic force. Everyone was sleeping with everyone else, and there was a very strong questioning of sexual values and of marriage in the play," says West.
"Beaumarchais himself was the most incredible figure. He was a watchmaker, and when he was a kid he developed a new mechanism that was stolen from him. He took the issue into the court of the time, which was unheard of for someone of his class and background, and so he was given a small role in the court. He used that to marry money, and to gun run for the American War of Independence. He supported a lot of causes, and individuals - he published all Voltaire's work at his own expense, for example."
West has also covered a lot of ground. He has written and directed his own work for several theatre companies, including Pigsback and Bickerstaffe, as well as adapting Tartuffe for the Gate.
"At the moment, I'm working on two short films, One More Shot, with Billy Mc Cannon, and Alaska. I'm also working on a piece of theatre with Olwen Fouere based on the writings of Artaud, who was responsible for the whole idea of a Theatre of Cruelty.
"I think as well as writing for theatre, it is enjoyable to be involved in the making of it, and I think Dublin, and Ireland as a whole, is a very strong place to work from at the moment. By nature, theatre is a cautious, anachronistic medium, but there is a lot you can do with it, and that's exactly what I want to do."
