Our American Cousin (1858). A comedy by Englishman Tom Taylor, it originally centered on a rather bumptious Yankee, Asa Trenchard, who arrives in England, where he rescues his virtually impoverished English relatives from the treacherous financial machinations of a supposed family counselor and also marries the young girl whom he himself had inadvertently deprived of an inheritance. The play was initially offered to J. W. Wallack, who rejected it and suggested it be submitted to Laura Keene. She, too, at first was cool to the comedy. However, when she produced it at her theatre in 1858 with Joseph Jefferson as Asa and E. A. Sothern as the silly, lisping Lord Dundreary, the play became one of the biggest comedy hits of its era and helped both actors on the way to stardom. With time Sothern expanded his role until it was the most important part in the play. A comparison of an 1869 printed version and an 1870 manuscript used by Sothern shows markedly different dialogue. The play did not reach its author's native England until 1861. It held the stage in both countries for several decades and was revived with some regularity until the turn of the century. Most Americans know the play as the one being performed at the time of President Lincoln's assassination.
Our American Cousin
| American Theater Guide: Our American Cousin |
| Wikipedia: Our American Cousin |
Our American Cousin is a play in three acts by Tom Taylor. The play is a farcical comedy whose plot is based on the introduction of an awkward, boorish American to his aristocratic English relatives. It premiered at Laura Keene's Theatre in New York City on October 15, 1858. The play concerns the adventures of an American, Asa Trenchard, first played by Joseph Jefferson, who goes to England to claim the family estate.
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Most famous performance
The play's most famous performance came seven years later, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. Halfway through Act III, Scene 2, the character Asa Trenchard (the title role), played that night by Harry Hawk, utters a line considered one of the play's funniest:
- "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap..."
During the laughter that followed this line, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor who was not in that night's cast of Our American Cousin, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln. He chose this moment in the hope that the sound of the audience's laughter would mask the sound of his gunshot. He then leapt from Lincoln's box to the stage and made his escape through the back of the theater to a horse he had left waiting in the alley.
Cultural impact
Before its history was changed by Lincoln's assassination, the play had already made a cultural impact. The character Lord Dundreary, a dimwitted aristocrat, became popular for the absurd riddles he propounded. "Dundrearyisms," twisted aphorisms in the style of Lord Dundreary (e.g. "birds of a feather gather no moss"), also enjoyed a brief vogue. The scene in which Dundreary read a letter from his even stupider brother became especially famous. The actor Edward Askew Sothern, who created the Dundreary role, expanded the scene considerably in performance. A number of spin-off works were also created, including a play about the brother. The same character's style of beard — long, bushy sideburns — gave the English language the word "dundrearies."
See also
External links
- Our American Cousin at Project Gutenberg
- Abraham Lincoln's Assassination
- The Life and Plot of John Wilkes Booth
- Modern look at the play, written to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth.
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 | Taylor, Tom (British playwright) |
| dundrearies |
| Laura Keene (English-American actress & dramatist) |
 | What was the play your American Cousin about? |
| Who wrote the play your American Cousin? |
| What was the line from Our American Cousin used by John Wilkes Booth? |
Copyrights:
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 | American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Our American Cousin". Read more |
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