Sometimes it’s as simple as finding the right actors for the story. With London Assurance, a comedy of manners that propelled its precocious author, Dion Boucicault, to stardom, director Antoni Cimolino does just that. Filling the Festival Theatre stage with some of the best comedic actors in the Stratford Festival’s company, Cimolino lets Boucicault’s still unblunted wit do the heavy lifting.
Set firmly in its time – a 19th-century England of aristocrats, country manors and wryly amused servants – London Assurance takes great delight in foregrounding the misplaced vanity of its pampered characters. Cimolino make the most of the play’s dramatic irony, building up the ludicrousness of its mistaken identities and sudden professions of love until a raucous climax that includes a sham elopement and an unintended duel. Cimolino also plays up London Assurance’s metatextual elements – Boucicault deliberately drew attention to some of the more fanciful aspects of the plot – to gently poke fun at the theatrical tropes of the time.
Written when Boucicault was only 19 years old, London Assurance follows Sir Harcourt Courtly, an aging dandy, in his pursuit of Grace Harkaway, a much younger woman set to inherit a substantial fortune. Much of the play is set on the grounds of Oak Hall, a country estate owned by Max, Grace’s wealthy uncle. But instead of a quiet weekend courting in the country, Courtly and his betrothed are interrupted by an unexpected crew of holiday-goers, including the droll Lady Gay Spanker, rakish con artist Richard Dazzle (a playfully exuberant Emilio Vieira) and Courtly’s debauched – and disguised – son, Charles.
Courtly, played with verve by a wonderfully oblivious Geraint Wyn Davies, is the play’s most obvious buffoon. A fop obsessed with high fashion and his social standing, Courtly spends most of London Assurance as the butt of an increasingly complicated joke. While his Sir Courtly might be vain, Wyn Davies embraces his character’s innate silliness, resulting in one of this season’s best comedic performances.
Bolstered by some truly audacious costumes by designer Francesca Callow, Wyn Davies struts and preens with a misplaced confidence that’s apparent to almost everyone around him. Matching Wyn Davies in another tour-de-force performance is Deborah Hay, who has already earned plaudits this season for her joyous portrayal of Feste in Twelfth Night. Hay brings a kinetic energy to the stage as the irrepressible Lady Gay Spanker, matching her character’s description as “glee made a living thing.
” Her laughter, intelligence and liveliness make Hay’s Spanker a more-than-capable foil for the besotted Courtly from the moment she trots on the stage, riding crop in hand, in a wildly hilarious entrance. While Wyn Davies and Hay are obvious highlights, the rest of London Assurance’s cast is uniformly superb. As the pragmatic heiress Grace Harkaway, Marisa Orjalo balances her character’s resigned acceptance of her circumstance – an arranged marriage to a much older gentleman – with an underlying astuteness.
Unlike Shakespeare’s heroines (or her betrothed), Orjalo’s Grace isn’t fooled by hasty disguises or romantic schemes. As her eventual suitor, Austin Eckhart also finds a balance as the duplicitous Charles, shifting with ease from a feigned shyness to the untamped confidence of his dashing alter ego, Augustus Hamilton. Under Cimolino’s deft direction, the actors add a a number of comedic flourishes that help underscore the absurdity of the plot.
There are little touches, like Wyn Davies casually – and uncomfortably – joining David Collins’ Max Harkaway on the settee, or an unrecognizable Graham Abbey having his avaricious lawyer, Mark Meddle, dance with excitement at the prospect of a lucrative lawsuit. Other choices, like Michael Spencer-Davis’s wonderfully nonplussed portrayal of Adolphus Spanker, help create a necessary comedic friction. Sometimes, it’s just a dryly mocking aside, which Ryan Wilkie perfectly provides as the deadpan servant, Cool.
The comedic chops of the cast are complemented by the capable set and lighting design of Lorenzo Savoini, who transforms the Festival Theatre stage into stately Oak Hall. There’s a rustic warmth to the design, even with the ornate rugs and luxurious furniture, that draws the audience in. There’s also enough on the stage – wooden screens and well-placed shrubs, for example – to provide plot-critical hiding spots for eavesdropping characters.
Directed with affection by Cimolino, who has a penchant for this kind of satire, London Assurance is most definitely assured in its execution. This jubilant cast of top-notch actors brings real verve to Boucicault’s enduring comedy, making for a sidesplitting production that serves as another triumph in an already strong season. As biting as its satire can be, this production of London Assurance benefits from an intrinsic kindness and an appreciable fondness for its characters.
While Courtly may be a buffoon for much of the play, he has greater aspirations and a capacity to grow, giving Cimolino’s London Assurance a kind of moral centre among the puns, slapstick and innuendo..
