Difference between revisions of "Our American Cousin"
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The play tells of the introduction of an awkward, boorish, but honest American, Asa Trenchard, to his aristocratic English relatives when he goes to England to claim the family estate. | The play tells of the introduction of an awkward, boorish, but honest American, Asa Trenchard, to his aristocratic English relatives when he goes to England to claim the family estate. | ||
| − | The play premiered at Laura Keene's Theatre, New York, in 1858, with "Asa Trenchard" played by Joseph Jefferson and "Lord Dundreary" by Edward Askew Sothern | + | The play premiered at Laura Keene's Theatre, New York, in 1858, with "Asa Trenchard" played by Joseph Jefferson and "Lord Dundreary" by Edward Askew Sothern, and played with success in London in 1861. |
| − | + | Sothern's exaggerated performances eventually turned the supporting role into a leading one and the play was henceforth often billed as ''[[Lord Dundreary]]'' or ''[[Lord Dundreary, or The American Cousin]]''. | |
| − | The play is often best remembered in modern times as the play that Abraham Lincoln was attending in Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 1865, on the night he was assassinated. | + | |
| + | |||
| + | The play is often best remembered in modern times as the play that Abraham Lincoln was attending in Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 1865, on the night he was assassinated. | ||
==Translations and adaptations== | ==Translations and adaptations== | ||
Revision as of 05:39, 28 July 2020
Our American Cousin can refer to one of two stage works:
Not to confused with the Canadian film My American Cousin[1] (1985)
Contents
Our American Cousin farce in three acts by Tom Taylor (1858)
Also found as Lord Dundreary or Lord Dundreary, or The American Cousin
The original text
The play tells of the introduction of an awkward, boorish, but honest American, Asa Trenchard, to his aristocratic English relatives when he goes to England to claim the family estate.
The play premiered at Laura Keene's Theatre, New York, in 1858, with "Asa Trenchard" played by Joseph Jefferson and "Lord Dundreary" by Edward Askew Sothern, and played with success in London in 1861.
Sothern's exaggerated performances eventually turned the supporting role into a leading one and the play was henceforth often billed as Lord Dundreary or Lord Dundreary, or The American Cousin.
The play is often best remembered in modern times as the play that Abraham Lincoln was attending in Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 1865, on the night he was assassinated.
Translations and adaptations
See Our American Cousin, the opera by Sawyer and Shoptaw (2008)
Performance history in South Africa
1866: Performed as Lucretia Borgia by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on
Our American Cousin an opera in three acts by Sawyer and Shoptaw (2008)
Written by American composer Eric Sawyer, with libretto by John Shoptaw, the opera recounts the assassination of Abraham Lincoln t Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865.
For more about the opera, see the Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_American_Cousin_(opera)
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_American_Cousin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_American_Cousin
D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.203-205
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