Sara Topham on Dion Boucicault

Irish playwright Boucicault's work resembles both William Shakespeare and Oliver Goldsmith.

Sep 25, 2006 Coral Andrews

Was Boucicault thinking about Shakespeare's Much Ado when he wrote London Assurance?

Canadian actress Sara Topham plays Grace Harkaway in London Assurance by playwright Dion Boucicault at the Stratford Festival of Canada. Here's what she has to say about the experience: "Brian Bedford (who stars as Sir Harcourt Courtly) and I talked about the fact Grace Harkaway is a lot like some Jane Austen characters, Emma, or Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. She is not a normal ingénue.

Brian said to me: "I want you to come out and I want the audience to think that they know from the way you look what you are going to be like, and then I want you to take that and knock it all down."

Grace has a marvelous line: "I have many employments. This week I devote to study and various amusements and next week to being married, the following week to repentance perhaps..." which is directly from Much Ado about Nothing. Beatrice talks about "wooing, wedding, and repenting". So Brian talked a lot about Adam O'Byrne, my cohort [Charles Courtly] and I, being like a baby Beatrice and Benedick [from Much Ado], and I am much more like Beatrice than he is Benedick. It also has a lot of (Oliver Goldsmith's) She Stoops to Conquer in it.

Dion Boucicault's London Assurance continues at the Stratford Festival's Avon Theatre to Oct 21.

The copyright of the article Sara Topham on Dion Boucicault in Playwrights & Stage Actors is owned by Coral Andrews. Permission to republish Sara Topham on Dion Boucicault in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.