Foul Play

Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot was born in Dublin on 26th December 1820. His mother, Anne, was a Darley, an important influential Dublin family related to the Guinness's by marriage. His father was unknown but most likely Dionysius Lardner, a lodger at his mother's house at a time when she was separated from her husband.Boucicault attended various schools in and around London from the late 1820's. In 1837, he was enrolled at Wyke House, in Brentford, where he appeared in a school play, in the part of Rolla in Sheridan's 'Pizarro', and wrote his own play, 'The Old Guard', which was produced some years later. From there he joined Lardner as an apprentice civil engineer but this was soon abandoned for a career in acting in Cheltenham, under the stage name of Lee Morton. He made his first appearance on stage at Bristol and soon after began to write plays, occasionally in conjunction with his nascent acting career.Boucicault's play, 'A Legend of the Devil's Dyke', opened in Brighton in 1838. Three years later, he had a big success as a dramatist with 'London Assurance', at Covent Garden.Boucicault rapidly followed this with a number of successful plays including 'The Bastile, an "e;after-piece"e;' (1842), 'Old Heads and Young Hearts' (1844), 'The School for Scheming' (1847), 'Confidence' (1848), and 'The Knight Arva' (1848), all produced at Her Majesty's Theatre. He also had great successes with adaptions of two French plays 'The Corsican Brothers' (1852) and 'Louis XI' (1855).In his 'The Vampire' (1852), Boucicault made his debut as a leading actor as the vampire Sir Alan Raby. His characterisation was cited as "e;a dreadful and weird thing played with immortal genius"e;. In 1854 he wrote and acted in 'Andy Blake; or, The Irish Diamond'.From 1854 to 1860, Boucicault lived in the United States. With his actress wife, Agnes Robertson, he toured America and continued to write and act in a number of commercially successful plays.In partnership with his business manager, William Stuart, an expatriate Irish MP and adventurer, he leased New York's Wallack's Theatre in 1855/56, and staged a short season at the Washington Theatre in Washington D.C before acquiring a short lease in New Orleans for his play 'Used Up'. In the summer of 1859, the pair leased Burton's New Theatre on Broadway and after extensive remodeling and now renamed the Winter Garden Theatre it opened on 5th December with his new sensation, the anti-slavery potboiler 'The Octoroon', in which he also starred. This was the first play to attempt to treat seriously several issues of the Afro-American population.When the partners fell out over money Boucicault returned to England. He was soon back at the Adelphi Theatre with his adapted production 'The Colleen Bawn'. By every metric it was one of the most successful of the time. The fortune it made him was later lost in managing various London theatres.Boucicault's next big success was at London's Princess's Theatre in 1864 with 'Arrah-na-Pogue' playing the part of a County Wicklow, Ireland carman. This together with his admired creation of "e;Conn"e; in his play 'The Shaughraun' (Wallacks Theatre, New York City, in 1874, and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1875), won him the reputation of best "e;Stage Irishman"e; of his time. He even earned a mention in W S Gilbert's 1881 operetta 'Patience' with the line: "e;The pathos of Paddy, as rendered by Boucicault"e;.In 1875 Boucicault returned to New York City, where he made his home although he visited London and other former haunts occasionally. He made his last appearance in London in his play, The Jilt, in 1885.Between July and October 1885, Boucicault toured Australia. Seemingly without warning he left Agnes to marry Josephine Louise Thorndyke, a young actress, on 9th September 1885, in Sydney. It created a scandal, especially as his marriage to Agnes was only formally dissolved in June 1888 as "e;bigamy with adultery."e; He was forced to sell the rights to many of his plays to finance the alimony payments to Agnes.His last play, 'A Tale of a Coat', opened at Daly's Theatre in New York on 14th August 1890, and closed a month later.Dionysius 'Dion' Lardner Boursiquot died on 18th September 1890 in New York City. He was 69.