Theatre Guild

Dion Boucicault, the Irish genius of London theatre in the age of Dickens, wrote the brilliantly funny London Assurance in 1841 and thereby created in Sir Harcourt and Lady Spanker two of the great comic roles of the English stage.

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Sir Harcourt Courtly is lured away from the epi-centre of fashionable London by the promise of a rich and beautiful bride, Grace Harkaway, several decades his junior. Arriving at Oak Hall in Gloucestershire the home of Grace's uncle Max, he marvels at this rural Venus until her charms are eclipsed by her hearty cousin, the foxhunting Lady Gay Spanker. Meanwhile, his son Charles turns up, masquerading as a man called Augustus Hamilton to escape from his creditors, and falls head over heels for Grace. When Lady Spanker discovers the young couple, she needs little prompting from the visiting chancer Richard Dazzle to lead Sir Harcourt astray.