Peter Viney's Blog

by Dion Boucicault
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
(Script additions by Richard Bean)

NT At Home
Filmed 2010, Olivier Theatre at the National

CAST
Simon Russell-Beale- Sir Harcourt Courtly
Fiona Shaw- Lady Gay Spanker
Richard Briers Mr Adolphus ‘Dolly’ Spanker
Paul Ready- Charles Courtly, Sir Harcourt’s son
Michelle Terry – Grace Harkaway, Max Harkaway’s neice
Mark Addy- Squire Max Harkaway
Matt Cross – Richard Dazzle
Nick Sampson – Cool, Sir Harcourt’s valet
Tony Jayawardena- Mark Meddle, lawyer
Maggie Service – Pert, Grace’s maid
Junix Inocian – Mr Solomon Isaacs

London Assurance was written in 1841, and is right in the centre of the gap between Sheridan and Oscar Wilde, or the century that many drama courses skip entirely. Dion Boucicault, like Goldsmith, Sheridan and Wilde was Anglo-Irish. It was produced in London and New York in 1841.

Michael Billington’s 101 Greatest Plays has no British representative from the era. I’d call it obscure, though the RSC (Ronald Eyre 1971 with Donald Sinden as Sir Harcourt), BBC TV (1976 with Anthony Andrews in the lead role), Chichester (Sam Mendes, 1989 with Paul Eddington as Sir Harcourt) and National Theatre (Nicholas Hytner with Simon Russell-Beale as Sir Harcourt) have all done major productions. It has attracted major directors and actors. Noël Coward was obviously aware of it. The man Charles owes money in this play is Solomon Isaacs, which is what Elyot and Amanda say as a signal to stop arguing in Private Lives.

1841 is only four years into Victoria’s reign, so it is hardly Victorian at all. Much of the comedy goes back further than Goldsmith and Sheridan to Restoration Drama. The main character , Sir Harcourt Courtly, dresses and behaves like a Regency dandy, which also points to his claim to be 39 years old rather than the true 57. He is from that earlier era. The servants names are an earlier era too- Cool is Sir Harcourt’s valet. Pert is the maid at the country house. Dazzle is the dissolute chancer. Meddle is the meddling lawyer. In one of the most splendid naming choices in a play, the horsey horsewoman is Lady Gay Spanker.

It has taken us fifteen years to get round to seeing it, courtesy of NT At Home streaming. I’d read about it in Nicholas Hytner’s autobiographical account of his National Theatre years, Balancing Acts. I assume it’s much tweaked:

Nicholas Hytner: The play’s own author advertised its literary shortcomings. More to the point, a lot of the humour is as obscure as Ben Jonson’s, so I put a yellow marker line over every line I thought should be funnier, and handed it to Richard Bean. Half the biggest laughs were his. He preferred an almost unnoticeable credit, just above the production photographer, so Boucicault got the plaudits, which would have suited him as much as our pragmatic determination to make a hit of his old play by improving it.
Balancing Acts: Behind The Scenes At The National Theatre, 2017

I noted that IMDB co-credits Richard Bean fully.

The production had important follow-ups. Richard Bean and Nicholas Hytner went on to One Man, Two Guv’nors. Michelle Terry and Paul Ready are a couple and she became Artistic Director of The Globe. Simon Russell-Beale went quickly to a similar style in Michael Grandage’s Privates on Parade. Mark Addy starred in Richard Bean’s the Hypocrite in 2017.

So what’s it about? Let’s start with the “Synopsis of Incidents” from the 1889 copyrighted publication of the text. I’ve never done this before, but it sets the mood delightfully.

Once in Gloucestershire, Charles (Paul Ready)poses as one ‘Augustus Hamilton’ to woo Grace (Michelle Terry). He is competition with his own father. Sir Harcourt (Simon Russell-Beale) in turn becomes interested in the formidable Lady Gay Spanker (Fiona Shaw)and we have much fun, with her husband, Adolphus Spanker (Richard Briers) wandering about looking as if he has dementia.

The two leads are absolutely marvellous. Simon Russell-Beale plays Sir Harcourt as an extremely camp character with heavy make-up and dyed hair. At one moment he is concealing an erection Lady Spanker caused with a cushion, the next he’s posing in a lady’s bonnet. The Guardian described him as ‘omnisexual.’ Fiona Shaw is a cigar puffing, back slapping, whisky swilling mistress of the hunt.

There is a lot going on. We liked Paul Ready’s confident pose as Augustus Hamilton, then when he has to leave quickly and come back as Charles Courtley (simply adding a pair of glasses) he is a study in diffidence. Then Michelle Terry’s Grace is introduced to us shovelling manure in the mansion’s yard, so is a long way from the simpering heroine. Nick Sampson’s valet, Cool, is surely a template for Jeeves. Matt Cross as Dazzle’s slightly off accent contrasts his claims to be related to every aristocratic family mentioned.

They introduced one twist that gave a considerable laugh. The name Solomon Isaacs has a strong suggestion that the money-lender will be an anti-Semitic stereotype. They switched that by keeping the name, but having him played by Junix Inocian, who looks instantly ethnically Chinese. (He is actually Filipeno). I think the laugh was relief that they were NOT going there with the stereotype. It was better than the alternative of renaming him.

Nicholas Hytner: There was plenty that an aspiring actor could have learned from Simon’s vowels, as full as his waist; from the imperceptible lift he gave his best lines. She could have learned from Fiona’s pell-mell helter-skelter speed of thought, her unabashed brio: ‘Horse, man, hound, earth, heaven. All, all, one piece of glowing ecstasy.’ But whatever it was that brought the house down when Richard Briers wobbled unsteadily into the stage cannot be taught.
Balancing Acts: Behind The Scenes At The National Theatre, 2017

This production is sublime comedy. It also works on a TV screen, though the Olivier revolving set also looks wonderful.

*****
LINKS ON THIS BLOG:

NICHOLAS HYTNER
Richard II, Bridge Theatre 2025
John Gabriel Borkman by Ibsen, Bridge 2022
The Southbury Child, by Stephen Beresford, Chichester 2022
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bridge Theatre, 2019
Young Marx, by Richard Bean & Clive Coleman, Bridge Theatre 2017
Othello, National Theatre, 2013
Timon of Athens, National Theatre, 2012
Hamlet, National Theatre, 2010
People, by Alan Bennett, National Theatre on tour 2013

RICHARD BEAN
Jack Absolute Rides Again, National, 2022
The Duke (film) 2022
Young Marx by Richard Bean and Chris Coleman, Bridge 2017
The Hypocrite, RSC 2017
One Man Two Guv’nors, 2012
Pitcairn, Chichester Minerva Theatre, 2014
The Hypochondriac, Bath Theatre Royal, 2014

SIMON RUSSELL-BEALE
John Gabriel Borkman by Ibsen, Bridge 2022
The Tempest, RSC 2016 (Prospero)
King Lear, National Theatre, 2014 (Lear)
The Hot House, by Harold Pinter, Trafalgar Studios, 2013
Privates on Parade, by Peter Nichols, Michael Grandage Season, 2012
Timon of Athens, National Theatre, 2012 (Timon)

MICHELLE TERRY
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Globe 2023 (Puck)
Twelfth Night, Globe 2021 (Viola)
Macbeth, Wanamaker, 2018
As You Like It, Globe 2018
Midsummer Night’s Dream – Globe 2013 (Hippolyta / Titania)
As You Like It, Globe 2015
Love’s Labour’s Lost– RSC
Love’s Labour’s Won RSC

MARK ADDY
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Chichester 2025
The Salisbury Poisonings (TV series) 2020
The Hypocrite, RSC 2017

PAUL READY
Macbeth, Wanamaker, 2018

NICK SAMPSON
Richard II, Bridge Theatre 2025
Plenty by David Hare, Chichester 2019
Ross  by Terence Rattigan, Chichester 2016
Othello, National Theatre, 2013
Timon of Athens, National Theatre, 2012
Hamlet, National Theatre, 2010