Our American Cousin farce in three acts by Tom Taylor (1858)

Also known 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. Sothern's 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 was a success in London too, where it had a long run in 1861.

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

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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