Playwright: Dion Boucicault. At: City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Tickets: 773-293-3682;
Citylit.org; $32. Runs through: July 23
Comedies about a father and son competing for the same woman go back well over 2,000 years, perpetually reinvented by clever writers of many eras and nations, none more so than this Early Victorian take by Dion Boucicault ( pronounced "BOO-sha-coe" ), one of the greatest Anglo-American playwrights of the 19th century.
Essentially a comedy of manners, London Assurance ends with the father, foppish Sir Harcourt Courtly ( Kinglsey Day ), realizing ( as all such fathers do not ) that he has been a fool and reclaiming his nearly-lost honor while leaving beautiful young heiress Grace Hardaway ( Kat Evans ) to his son, Charles, ( Kraig Kelsey ), who has been pretending to be someone else. There are, of course, complications, chiefly in the persons of dashing horsewoman Lady Gay Spanker ( Cameron Feagin ), described by Grace as "glee made into a living thing," and an opportunistic fixer named Dazzle ( Richard Eisloeffel ) who mightily stirs the pot.
It's great funfrom the snobbish and perceptive servants to the caricatured Upper Class typesand director Terry McCabe has staged it well, with relatively simple blocking ( stage movement ), a colorful drawing room set ( design by Ray Toler, painted by Shannon Evans ) and lavish costumes ( Tom Kieffer ) and hair stylings/wigs ( Bob Kuper ). McCabe wants Boucicault's wit to speak for itself and it does, but audiences must listen well to get it all. It's not just the substantial English town-and-country dialects ( coached by Carrie Hardin ) but the fact that plays of this era are language-heavy, and the speech is not entirely modern.
It's well worth the effort, because the players are capable and charming, the pace is fast but not frantic and McCabe understands the characters must be firmly established before they can be funny. The comedy increases as the play progresses. There also are wonderful bits of business, especially for the smaller roles. Keep your eye on everything Edward Kuffert says and does as Sir Harcourt's valet, Cool ( he is ), and likewise skilled physical clown David Fink as Lady Gay's meek husband. There's wonderful contrast, too, between tall, thin Day as acerbic and hyper-refined Sir Harcourt and Feagin's earthy Lady Gay with whom Sir Harcourt is smitten. They resemble a dry lemon falling in love with a juicy cherry pie.
Of course, the story itself isn't believableLondon Assurance was written well before the era of psychological realism in theatrebut that doesn't matter. What mattersbeside the sheer enjoyment of it allis whether or not we can see believably human traits in the characters and, of course, we can. Love at first sight, vanity, self-deception, joy, generosity, pretense, scheming and social climbing all are present and accounted for, as City Lit puts its best foot forward with London Assurance.