A high definition digital presentation captured from the stage of the National Theatre, London as part of the pilot season of NT Live, in which the National Theatre broadcasts performances of plays onto cinema and performing arts center screens worldwide.
Dion Boucicault, the Irish genius of London theatre in the age of Dickens, wrote the brilliantly funny London Assurance in 1841 and created – in Sir Harcourt and Lady Spanker – two of the greatest comic roles of the English stage, played now at the National Theatre by Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw.
"The funniest and most assured comedy in all of London."
★★★★★ ‐ Sunday Express
London Assurance
Sir Harcourt Courtly is lured away from the epicentre of fashionable London by the promise of a rich and beautiful bride, Grace, several decades his junior. Arriving at Oak Hall, Gloucestershire, he marvels at this rural Venus until her charms are eclipsed by her hearty cousin, the foxhunting Lady Gay Spanker. Meanwhile Sir Harcourt's disguised son turns up in flight from his creditors and falls head over heels for Grace. When Lady Spanker discovers the young couple, she needs little prompting to lead Sir Harcourt astray.
Performance length: 2 hours, 40 minutes with one intermission.
Mark Addy
Richard Briers
Matt Cross
Fiona Drummond
Mark Extance
Richard Frame
Junix Inocian
Tony Jayawardena
Simon Markey
Laura Matthews
Prasanna Puwanarajah
Paul Ready
Simon Russell Beale
Nick Sampson
Maggie Service
Fiona Shaw
Michelle Terry
David Whitworth
By Dion Boucicault
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Designed by Mark Thompson
Lighting by Neil Austin
Music by Rachel Portman
Choreography by Scarlett Mackmin
Sound by John Leonard
www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/ntlive
NT Live is funded in partnership with Arts Council England and NESTA and supported internationally by Travelex. NT Live events are distributed outside the U.K. through New York-based BY Experience, Inc.
Pictured left: Fiona Shaw as Lady Gay Spanker and Simon Russell Beale as Sir Harcourt Courtly. Pictured right: Fiona Shaw as Lady Gay Spanker, Richard Briers as Mr. Adolphus Spanker, Simon Russell Beale as Sir Harcourt Courtly and Mark Addy as Max Harkaway. Photos by Catherine Ashmore.
