LONDON ASSURANCE – REVIEW OF 2024 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Dion Boucicault’s London Assurance receives a hilarious production at the Stratford Festival directed by Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. He has assembled a brilliant cast and turned the play into a rollercoaster of laughter.

London Assurance premiered in 1841, and it is one of the few plays written in pre-Oscar Wilde 19^th century England that one is likely to see produced.

The plot is vintage comedy. The aging Sir Harcourt Courtly (Geraint Wyn Davies), a 57-year-old London fop wants to marry the pretty and wealthy 18-year-old Grace Harkaway (Marissa Orjalo). Her father’s will provided that she must marry him or forfeit her inheritance to his son Charles Courtly (Austin Eckert).

Sir Harcourt heads for the country to the estate of his friend Max Harkaway (David Collins), Grace’s uncle to complete the marriage arrangements. Charles and his friend Razzle (Emilio Vieira) go to the same place unbeknownst to Sir Harcourt. Charles will pretend that he is not Sir Harcourt’s son and appear as Augustus Hamilton. Augustus and Grace hit it off.

Sir Harcourt is attracted to Lady Gay Spanker (Deborah Hay), a spunky and hilarious horse rider who is married to the hopeless and ineffectual Adolphus Spanker (Michael Spencer-Davis). Lady Gay will pretend to elope with Sir Harcourt, Charles will resolve his identity issue and fall in love with Grace and all’s well that ends well.

Deborah Hay as Lady Gay Spanker (centre) with from left: Marissa Orjalo as Grace Harkaway, David Collins as Max Harkaway, Graham Abbey as Mark Meddle, Emilio Vieira as Richard Dazzle and Geraint Wyn Davies as Sir Harcourt Courtly in London Assurance. Stratford Festival 2024. Photo: David Hou.

There is an assortment of other characters to fill out the plot. The servants play a more important roles than usual, from the servants Cool (Rylan Wilkie), Pert (Hilary Adams) James (John Kirkpatrick) to the Constable (Scott Wentworth) and all of them are given opportunities to create laughter.

The actors: Wyn Davies as Sir Harcourt is the quintessential fop in a black wig and colourful clothes, tossing his head back with self-importance and arrogance. He is a parody of himself and very funny.

One of the biggest bringers of laughter is the wonderfully named Lady Spanker. She is a horse lover, and we hear the hoofs of a horse racing around the theatre before she enters, fired up with energy and humour. She is irreverent and hilarious. Her husband played by Michael Spencer-Davis brings the house down. He wears a dishevelled naval officer’s uniform (I think) that is ready to fall off his body, he can’t get a sentence out and totters as if he may drop on the ground any second. His every move produces a laugh.

Graham Abbey plays the foolish lawyer Mark Meddle giving barristers a bad name and the audience a lot of laughs. There are some roles that are less ridiculous than others (they can’t all be clownish) and they deserve individual praise but the humour that they deliver is dependent on their ability of course, but more so on the inventiveness of Antoni Cimolino that can make a simple line of text funny.

As I said, the production garners laughter almost at every line and the credit must go to Cimolino. He is imaginative, inventive and has a keen sense of comedy that is brilliant. A look, a posture, a doubletake, a hesitation, the delivery of a line produces a gale of laughter. Charles Courtly kisses Grace on a bench and Cimolino develops it into an extended and hilarious scene as they enjoy the act and almost fall to the ground. There is a myriad of such inventive ways that Cimolino comes up with and the result is an almost non-stop roll of laughter. Stupendous.

The play is set in the upscale London area of Belgravia and a country estate. The thrust stage is decorated with flowers and rugs for an interior scene in the mansion. Even here Cimolino finds a way of creating a scene – servants light the candles of a chandelier, and it is raised. It is unexpected and produces a laugh. Beautiful dresses for the women and wigs and upper crust attire for the men. Kudos to set and costume designer Lorenzo Savoini.

This production of London Assurance surpasses all expectations and provides an exceptional night at the theatre.

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London Assurance by Dion Boucicault continues until October 25, 2024, at the Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

JAMES KARAS IS THE SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE OF THE GREEK PRESS