Reviewed
by Robin Breon
The
Stratford Festival's production of Dion Boucicault's London Assurance, first performed at London's
Theatre Royal in 1841, is one of those rare occasions to see a 19th century
melodrama done up in the grand style de la belle epoque. Boucicault is one of those
playwrights you read about in theatre history courses but seldom have the
opportunity to see. His comedy of vanity, opportunism and chicanery, was penned
when he was a mere lad of twenty and remains his most enduring hit. He stuck
with the grand, romantic style of melodrama in more serious themed plays such
as The Poor of New York (1857) which reproduced Union Square in the snow and The Octoroon (1859), an appeal to
abolitionist sentiments that replicated a slave auction. He lived a lifestyle
as grand and extravagant as his plays but eventually died in poverty in New
York in 1890.
In
the lead role of Sir Harcourt Courtly, Brian Bedford gives an outrageously
self-indulgent performance that could only have been given license by a
director entirely sympathetic to the project -- which apparently he was. At
times he seems to be throwing a bit of Dame Edna's act into the mix coupled
with some Liberace-like costume changes but who cares, he wins over the
audience from his very first entrance and holds it until the end.
Thank
goodness the playwright had the good graces and cunning wit to write a play
that had characters that could hold their own with the vainglorious Courtly.
Particularly, the delectably disciplined Lady Gay Spanker, played by Seana
McKenna, and her
milquetoast husband, Aldophus (Brian Tree), whose presence we miss every time he leaves the
stage.
Adam
O'Byrne plays
Charles Courtly, the role that Jason Robarts, Jr. originated in the early days
of the Festival and the fetching Sara Topham is Grace Harkaway who foils his
disguised attempt at courtship until truth wills out in the end as it must in
every melodrama.
But
the highest praise must be reserved for last and given to Desmond Heeley's set design and the skilled
crew of artists and artisans who recreated the gilded prosceniums, terraced
gardens and swagged curtains of the theatre of another century. The audience
rewarded their efforts with well deserved applause every time the curtain rose.