London Assurance

Published Tuesday 15 April 2008 at 17:00 by Julie Watterston

As Victorian farces go, Dion Boucicault’s London Assurance is probably one of the prime examples of its era. Titillating names, buxom wenches, rakish young men and foppish vanity abound in this comedy which is as unsubtle as the melodramatic acting the play demands.

For a modern day audience, the outrageously extreme performances give an excess of over-acting that can only be condoned in such a production, and the cast play it up with an eager enthusiasm. The incredulous plot and witty asides are full of comic mockery while designer, Philip Witcomb, employs his costume skills well in this colourful production.

Yet even though it is a ridiculously raucous comedy, the play still manages to convey the importance of the power of money and social class during this period of the 1800s.

Geraldine McNulty almost steals the show as the fearless Lady Gay Spanker, together with her diminutive husband ‘Dolly’, played by Christopher Ryan. Gerard Murphy is the vain and pompous Sir Harcourt Courtly with Nigel Hastings desperately snooping around for business as the lawyer Mark Meddle and Ken Bradshaw as the cocky interloper, Richard Dazzle. Alan McMahon, Robert Calvert, Laurence Mitchell, Mike Burnside, Vivien Reid and Clare Corbett complete the cast, with Nikolai Foster directing.