London Assurance: love trumps the mercantile. At least for a farcical moment
10 Aug 2024 - Photos by David Hou

A frothy satirical farce, London Assurance begins at a breakneck pace and continues to spin giddily until all the plots are satisfactorily resolved. There are multiple mistaken identities (one resulting in the most dramatic spit take in recent memory), vicious jibes at the follies of the upper classes, schemes, scams, and luxurious (and outrageous) fashions. As could only happen at Stratford, a troupe of a dozen or so elaborately bedecked dancers waltz in across the stage and disappear, only to reappear to exit much later on. Lavish is the order of the day, aptly matching the fanciful self-image of the foppish Sir Harcourt Courtly who is relentlessly mocked. This is an amoral world where relationships, or at least marriage, is based on financial gain and love and lust, while overwhelming and ardently pursued, are pursuits of idle pleasure and whim. As the resolutely practical Grace Harkaway bravely states, "Love. Why the very word is a breathing satire upon man's reason." Until love at first sight strikes her.

Grace Harkaway is to be married off on her 18th birthday to the much older Sir Harcourt Courtly in order to facilitate a land transfer. Neither she nor Courtly have any illusions that it is other than a business deal. However it grows complicated when Courtly's dissolute son Charles arrives home in the wee small hours having drunkenly picked up the charming leech Richard Dazzle and a collection of stolen door knockers. Sir Courtly is under the illusion that his son is a studious paragon of virtue, when in actuality, to avoid creditors and Constable Samuel Squeezer, Charles is on the run. Dazzle dazzles Grace's uncle Max Harkaway into extending wedding invitations to the duo and they set out to the country. The deceptions are facilitated by the valet Cool who drily observes, comments and does his best to protect everyone in the Courtly family. As always in a farce, the servants see all and the masters are idiots.

With a text dating back to 1841, this production is surprisingly fresh and relevant. There are some awkward monologues breaking the fourth wall and providing exposition, but the gleeful cast quickly have the audience in their confidence and the comedy supersedes the creaky device. Antoni Cimolino directs with a firm hand so that the elements of the farce fit together with clockwork precision and the comic epigrams, and foibles, pop above the chaos. The complications are myriad with Grace and Charles becoming besotted, and Sir Courtly falling under the spell of the remarkable Lady Gay Spanker. Playwright Dion Lardner Boucicault, and definitely Cimolino's interpretation, create a feminist warrior out of Lady Gay Spanker and Deborah Hay (Twelfth Night, Fall On Your Knees, Caroline, or Change, Lear) lives up to the galloping horses entrance she is blessed with. Whether chomping a cigar, berating her hapless husband, or uproariously seducing then trying to escape from Lord Courtly, Hay's gift for physical comedy matches her loopy line deliveries, delivered with steely conviction.

Her contortionist romp on a convenient couch is ably aided and abetted by Geraint Wyn Davies (Grand Magic) who subverts his natural star power to create a ludicrous and lovable Sir Courtly, a man who never met a mirror he didn't gaze into with adoration. He is up on the latest trends and fails to see the absurdity in his ever-escalating parade of outfits. However the audience does as Lord Courtly strikes, yet again, his self-proclaimed famous pose as Apollo, Wyn Davies wrings every laugh possible out of pompousness. The duo also toy with a reversal of sexual roles. In a less subtle production the subtext would become jokes instead of an examination of how flexible sexuality is when divorced from actual attraction. This plays out as well with Austin Eckert (Twelfth Night) whose Charles Courtly doubles, triples, as the handsome and dashing Augustus Hamilton and the nerd version of Charles. His initial designs on Dazzle, the effortlessly charming and sexy Emilio Vieira (Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Richard II, Grand Magic, Towards Youth), disappear upon sight of the lovely and feisty Grace (Marissa Orjalo), leaving Dazzle to settle, comically, for the next mark to cross his path.

Ryan White archly positions Cool as the panicked voice of reason in the center of the maelstrom, and Hilary Adams shines as Grace's tart servant. Thomas Duplessie (Twelfth Night, Jump, Darling) flips his wig as Martin, the exhausted servant who can't keep up with the shenanigans. David Collins (Twelfth Night, Richard II) is a loving uncle who also serves up some wry commentary on Sir Courtly's transgressions by dispensing droll reality. Graham Abbey (Romeo and Juliet, Snow White) dons a fright wig and an endless hustle as Mark Meddle the lawyer who is a bit of comic relief and broad satire too far. Shuffling through much of the second act, and providing a pivotal plot point, is Michael Spencer-Davis as Adolphius Spanker who has lost his masculinity to old age and Lady Gay Spanker. Yet his stolid boringness becomes the spark that shows all that love trumps the mercantile. At least for a moment. But there is never any question that these lively and unscrupulous characters will live and love larcenously in our memories and for many farces to come.