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 his 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 from the visiting chancer Dazzle to lead Sir Harcourt astray.
I am about to present society with a second Lady Courtly: young – blushing eighteen; lovely – I have her portrait; rich – I have her banker’s account. An heiress and a Venus!
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, played at the NT by Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw.
Give me the trumpet neigh, the spotted pack just catching scent. What a chorus in their yelp! The view-halloo, blent with a peal of free and fearless mirth! That’s our old English music – match it where you can.
Critical raves for
LONDON ASSURANCE
5 STARS - DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘This is an absolute corker of a production, one that will be talked about and chuckled over with reminiscent affection for years to come.'
Mark Thompson's designs stylishly capture both metropolitan sophistication and the bucolic pleasures of an idyllic Elizabethan manor house, while Nicholas Hytner's glowingly affectionate production offers a feast of irresistible comic acting.'
‘Simon Russell Beale appears to be having the time of his life as Sir Harcourt Courtly.'
‘Fiona Shaw is in blissful form...her [Lady Gay] Spanker is a sublime comic creation.'
‘The whole show is a joy from start to finish.'
4 STARS - INDEPENDENT
‘Bliss.'
‘Sparks fly in an assured comic display.'
‘[Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw] strike hysterical sparks off one another...he brings to the table all his brilliant talent...Shaw makes one of the funniest entries into a production that I have ever seen.'
'In [Hytner's] expert hands, the play brims with brio and youthful high spirits.'
‘The performances are first rate across the board.'
'London Assurance is a resounding hit.'
4 STARS - METRO
'Fantastic.'
5 STARS - SUNDAY EXPRESS
'London Assurance is the funniest and most assured comedy in all of London.'
'Has the audience positively purring with pleasure. Not to be missed.'
4 STARS - OBSERVER
4 STARS - THE TIMES
‘Spanking fun in the best of taste.'
'The promise of complications and misunderstandings is as richly rewarded as in many of the better Restoration comedies - the more so because Shaw and Russell Beale are in command.'
4 STARS - THE SUNDAY TIMES
'This is a treat - stylish, hilarious and unmissable.'
'Sparking, uproarious comedy, bursting with elegant, biting but warm-hearted wit and revelling in its own mastery of theatrical skill.'
'Nicholas Hytner is entirely at home with this wonderfully outrageous play. This is what gives English theatre its strengths; classicists like him, Simon Russell Beale, Fiona Shaw and Richard Briers are happy to apply their talent and versatility to a boisterous social comedy.'
4 STARS - GUARDIAN
‘It fills the Olivier with present laughter.'
4 STARS - EVENING STANDARD
‘Hytner's production is wickedly entertaining, skewering several kinds of pretentiousness. It's magnificently silly.'
'[Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw] spar and flirt beguilingly.'
'Richard Briers delights.'
4 STARS - DAILY MAIL
‘Simon Russell Beale -- I could watch him forever.'
‘Top-flight performances.'
‘Fiona Shaw's Lady Gay Spanker is marvellously funny.'
‘A jolly romp.'
‘The delicious performances will live long in the memory.'
'Dion Boucicault, not much studied these days, was a prolific Irish playwright who was the Victorian era's Alan Ayckbourn. His London Assurance is riotous, unpretentious fun.'
4 STARS - FINANCIAL TIMES
4 STARS - DAILY EXPRESS
'Shaw has brilliant comic timing.'
'This production is worth a visit to witness the sheer fun of Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw having the time of their lives.'
ARTS DESK
'Simon Russell Beale is on terrific form.'
'Mark Thompson's design is gorgeous, the costumes being particularly fine.'
'The production by Nicholas Hytner is an absolute joy.'
'It often feels like the cast are having as good a good time as the audience.'
'This is a real hoot.'
WHAT'S ON STAGE
'Nicholas Hytner, together with designer Mark Thompson, has assembled sumptuous setting and a fine ensemble.'
'Simon Russell Beale [is] in brilliant form as Sir Harcourt Courtly.'
'Lady Gay Spanker [is] played with over the top finesse by Fiona Shaw.'