London Assurance
Encyclopedia
London Assurance is a five-act comedy by Dion Boucicault
. It was the second play that he wrote, but his first to be produced. Its first production, from March 4, 1841 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (by Charles Matthews
and Madame Vestris
's company) was Boucicault's first major success. In the spring of 2010, it was produced by the National Theatre
, starring Fiona Shaw
and Simon Russell Beale
, for sold-out crowds. In addition, the theatre broadcast a performance as part of its new NTLive series, to thousands of people in cinemas in international venues across the world.
and her view of love as an "epidemic madness". Charles and Dazzle arrive, and the former (not knowing of his father's marriage plans) immediately starts courting Grace. When his father arrives, Charles pretends, in the face of all evidence, that he is a man called Augustus Hamilton who merely bears a remarkable likeness to Charles and convinces his father for a time.
and Oliver Goldsmith
on the one hand and Oscar Wilde
’s The Importance of Being Earnest
on the other.
) by its first New York production, with Charlotte Cushman as Lady Gay Spanker. The play's popularity has continued through the decades, as it was produced in New York in 1869, 1905, 1937 and 1997.
A 1974 Royal Shakespeare Company
production (directed by Ronald Eyre, with Donald Sinden
as Sir Harcourt Courtly, Roger Rees
as Charles, Judi Dench
as Grace and Dinsdale Landen
as Dazzle ) in 1974 transferred to the Albery Theatre in London and toured to New York. In 1976 the play was adapted for television by the BBC
in the Play of the Month
strand, with Anthony Andrews
as Charles Courtly and Landen reprising his role of Dazzle. It also featured Judy Cornwell
as Lady Gay, James Bee as her husband Adolphus, Charles Gray
as Sir Harcourt, Jan Francis
as Grace, Clifford Rose
as Cool and Nigel Stock as Max.
A 1989 stage production at the Chichester Festival Theatre
(directed by Sam Mendes
and featuring Paul Eddington
as Sir Harcourt) later transferred to London. Its cast also included John Warner as Adolphus. Other productions include one at the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester in 2004, and a 2008 production at the Watermill Theatre
in Bagnor
, which toured to Guildford.
The Royal National Theatre
revived the play in a sold-out production beginning March 2010, directed by Nicholas Hytner
and featuring Simon Russell Beale
as Sir Harcourt and Fiona Shaw
as Lady Gay. A live performance was simulcast to thousands of people in cinemas around the world through their NTLive! program.
Dion Boucicault
Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot , commonly known as Dion Boucicault, was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the...
. It was the second play that he wrote, but his first to be produced. Its first production, from March 4, 1841 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (by Charles Matthews
Charles James Mathews
Charles James Mathews was a British actor. He was one of the few British actors to be successful in French-speaking roles in France. A son of the actor Charles Mathews, he achieved a greater reputation than his father in the same profession and also excelled at light comedy...
and Madame Vestris
Lucia Elizabeth Vestris
Lucia Elizabeth Vestris was an English actress and a contralto opera singer, appearing in Mozart and Rossini works. While popular in her time, she was more notable as a theatre producer and manager...
's company) was Boucicault's first major success. In the spring of 2010, it was produced by the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, starring Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw, CBE is an Irish actress and theatre director. Although to international audiences she is probably most familiar for her minor role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films, she is an accomplished classical actress...
and Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale, CBE is an English actor. He has been described by The Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation."-Early years:...
, for sold-out crowds. In addition, the theatre broadcast a performance as part of its new NTLive series, to thousands of people in cinemas in international venues across the world.
Characters
- Sir Harcourt Courtly, cultured 60-year-old fop
- Charles Courtly, his dissolute son
- Dazzle, Charles' equally dissolute companion
- Max Harkaway, country squire
- Grace Harkaway, Max's niece
- Lady Gay Spanker, horse-riding virago
- Mr. Adolphus "Dolly" Spanker, her hen-pecked husband
- Mark Meddle, lawyer
- Pert, Grace's maid
- Cool, Charles' valet
- James (Simpson)
- Martin, servant to the Courtlys
- Solomon Isaacs, moneylender, in pursuit of Charles
Act 1
Charles and Dazzle arrive back at Sir Harcourt's London home after a night on the town, and manage to avoid Sir Harcourt with Cool's help—Sir Harcourt still believes Charles is a clean-living innocent. Max arrives to make the final arrangements for Sir Harcourt's marriage to Max's niece Grace—by arrangement, Sir Harcourt has financially helped Max in return for making Grace's inheritance contingent on her marrying Sir Harcourt (if she does not, it will pass to Charles). Sir Harcourt leaves and Dazzle bumps into Max, gaining himself an invitation to Oak Hall, Max's country house—a trip on which Charles will accompany him.Act 2
At Oak Hall, Grace explains to her maid Pert her acceptance of marriage to the aged Sir Harcourtand her view of love as an "epidemic madness". Charles and Dazzle arrive, and the former (not knowing of his father's marriage plans) immediately starts courting Grace. When his father arrives, Charles pretends, in the face of all evidence, that he is a man called Augustus Hamilton who merely bears a remarkable likeness to Charles and convinces his father for a time.
Act 3
Lady Gay Spanker and her husband "Dolly" arrive, and Sir Harcourt immediately falls in love with the former. Grace begins to fall in love with Charles/Augustus in spite of herself. When Lady Gay interrupts their courtship, Charles easily persuades the lady to distract Sir Harcourt from marriage to Grace by apparently accepting his affections.Act 4
Charles leaves as 'Augustus', returning as Charles to tell Grace that 'Augustus' has been killed, to see if she really loves him, whilst Lady Gay and Sir Harcourt plan to elope together. Together, however, Dolly and the local lawyer Meddle manage to prevent the elopement.Act 5
Dolly challenges Sir Harcourt to a duel, but both of them escape alive, and all is revealed. Dolly forgives Gay and Sir Harcourt finds out his son's true nature as well as acceding to the marriage.Style
The play is considered an intermediate point between the 18th-century comedies of Richard Brinsley SheridanRichard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...
and Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
on the one hand and Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
’s The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
on the other.
Production history
The play’s first production ran for three months, and was soon followed (from October 11, 1841, at the Park TheatrePark Theatre
Park Theatre or Park Theater may refer to:* Park Theatre , British Columbia* Park Theatre * Park Theatre , New York* Park Performing Arts Center, formerly Park Theater, in Union City, New Jersey...
) by its first New York production, with Charlotte Cushman as Lady Gay Spanker. The play's popularity has continued through the decades, as it was produced in New York in 1869, 1905, 1937 and 1997.
A 1974 Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
production (directed by Ronald Eyre, with Donald Sinden
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE is an English actor of theatre, film and television.-Personal life:Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes , he grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home doubled as the...
as Sir Harcourt Courtly, Roger Rees
Roger Rees
Roger Rees is a Welsh actor. He is best known to American audiences for playing the characters Robin Colcord on the American television sitcom show Cheers and Lord John Marbury on the American television drama The West Wing...
as Charles, Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
as Grace and Dinsdale Landen
Dinsdale Landen
Dinsdale James Landen was a British actor known mainly for his television appearances.Landen was born at Margate. He made his television debut in 1959 as Pip in an adaptation of Great Expectations and made his film debut in 1960, with a walk-on part in The League of Gentlemen...
as Dazzle ) in 1974 transferred to the Albery Theatre in London and toured to New York. In 1976 the play was adapted for television by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in the Play of the Month
Play of the Month
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles...
strand, with Anthony Andrews
Anthony Andrews
-Life and career:Andrews was born in London, the son of Geraldine Agnes , a dancer, and Stanley Thomas Andrews, a musical arranger and musical conductor. He grew up in the North Finchley district of London...
as Charles Courtly and Landen reprising his role of Dazzle. It also featured Judy Cornwell
Judy Cornwell
Judy Valerie Cornwell is an English actress best known for her role as Daisy in the British sitcom Keeping Up Appearances.-Biography:...
as Lady Gay, James Bee as her husband Adolphus, Charles Gray
Charles Gray (actor)
Charles Gray was an English actor who was well-known for roles including the arch-villain Blofeld in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, Sherlock Holmes' brother Mycroft Holmes in the Granada television series, and as The Criminologist in the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show in...
as Sir Harcourt, Jan Francis
Jan Francis
Jan Francis is an English actress, best known for playing Penny Warrender in the 1980s romantic comedy Just Good Friends.-Early life:Francis was born at the former Charing Cross Hospital near Trafalgar Square, London...
as Grace, Clifford Rose
Clifford Rose
Clifford Rose is a British classical actor.He was born in Herefordshire. He was educated at the King's School, Worcester and King's College London, before appearing in rep and with the Royal Shakespeare Company....
as Cool and Nigel Stock as Max.
A 1989 stage production at the Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....
(directed by Sam Mendes
Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...
and featuring Paul Eddington
Paul Eddington
Paul Eddington CBE was an English actor best known for his appearances in popular television sitcoms of the 1970s and 80s: The Good Life, Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.-Early life:...
as Sir Harcourt) later transferred to London. Its cast also included John Warner as Adolphus. Other productions include one at the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester in 2004, and a 2008 production at the Watermill Theatre
Watermill Theatre
The Watermill Theatre is an award -winning, professional repertory theatre with charitable status. It is a converted watermill with gardens beside the River Lambourn, in Bagnor, near Newbury, Berkshire, England...
in Bagnor
Bagnor
Bagnor is a hamlet close to the town of Newbury in the English county of Berkshire and on the banks of the River Lambourn. It is best known as the home of the nationally famous Watermill Theatre. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as Bagenore....
, which toured to Guildford.
The Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
revived the play in a sold-out production beginning March 2010, directed by Nicholas Hytner
Nicholas Hytner
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director. He has been the artistic director of London's National Theatre since 2003.-Biography:...
and featuring Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale, CBE is an English actor. He has been described by The Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation."-Early years:...
as Sir Harcourt and Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw, CBE is an Irish actress and theatre director. Although to international audiences she is probably most familiar for her minor role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films, she is an accomplished classical actress...
as Lady Gay. A live performance was simulcast to thousands of people in cinemas around the world through their NTLive! program.
Sources
- Templeman Library, University of KentUniversity of KentThe University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
- Stratford Festival