“Antoni Cimolino’s direction brings out a vitally important theme of the play that reveals it as more than a frothy entertainment…

To have two such characters who flout convention not just in their habits but in their opinions and behaviour represents an early questioning of gender roles that, unlike Shakespeare, is based on mentality, not disguise…

London Assurance is an hilarious, eye-opening rarity I am happy to have had the chance to see again.”

“If the Victorian-era playwright Dion Boucicault had written “London Assurance” today, his hapless protagonist Sir Harcourt Courtly might have looked a bit like this: a self-obsessed, Kardashian-type fashion influencer. Likely on a fad diet that he’ll ditch by next weekend. Living in SoCal (a bougie part of it, that is). Oh, and probably sporting a couple of botched plastic surgeries to boot…

That’s what makes director Antoni Cimolino’s new production at the Festival Theatre so satisfying. Yes, it’s a farce poking fun at Victorian-era notions of romance and excess. And it’s also a social satire that skewers us.”

“’London Assurance’” is new to me. After attending the opening night performance, I left the theatre, celebrating its emergence from the shadows of obscurity into its blinding gleam of comic gold…

Most of the play’s female characters were written as an assault on the Victorian notion of womanhood, full of irrepressible agency and independence with unconventional, blasé notions of status and marriage. If you’re a fan of the Bridgerton series, the commanding Lady Danbury comes to mind…

As bride-to-be Grace Harkaway, Marissa Orjalo is a revelation. It’s only her second season with the festival, and she has secured a star turn, and she is marvellous!”

“You can’t imagine Lady Gay Spanker played by anyone with more infectious joy or unhinged horsiness than Deborah Hay – who executes one of the greatest entrances ever into the Festival Theatre, galloping on stage gleefully.

Hay, thanks to the wonders of repertory theatre, is also playing the sad-sack clown Feste on the same stage this season in Twelfth Night. It’s quite a flip from that mournful Joni Mitchell-inspired performance to this zesty one that is more like Katharine Hepburn on horse tranquilizers.

[Michael] Spencer-Davis is one of great laugh-getters in this production playing Adolphus as nearly braindead until he gets some alcohol in him.

Another comic standout is Graham Abbey, who is nearly unrecognizable as a lawyer named Meddle who constantly wants to be kicked in the bottom so that he can sue for assault.”