Free Man of Color

The Tony Award-winning playwright spins “a tale of adultery, racism and the Louisiana Purchase…with daring and dizzying skill” (Ben Brantley, The New York Times).

The author of classics American plays such as Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves, Tony and Obie Award-winning playwright John Guare is celebrated for his theatrically playful, intellectually dazzling imagination. His play “A Free Man of Color evolves from a bustling farce into something deeper and darker but similarly exhilarating” (USA Today).

A Free Man of Color is set in boisterous New Orleans prior to the historic Louisiana Purchase. Before law and order took hold and class, racial, and political lines were drawn, New Orleans was a carnival of beautiful women, flowing wine, and pleasure for the taking. At the center of this Dionysian world is Jacques Cornet, a mixed-race gentleman who commands men, seduces women, and preens like a peacock. But it is 1801 and the map of New Orleans is about to be redrawn. The Louisiana Purchase brings American rule and racial segregation to the chaotic, colorful world of Jacques Cornet and all that he represents, turning the tables on freedom and liberty.